UNHCR preparing for refugee repatriation

UNHCR and the Burundian government have prepared a contingency plan for refugee repatriation in the event that the ongoing Arusha peace process on Burundi delivers a peace accord. “When the agreement is signed, we will pick up the operation of repatriation with the relevant Burundian authorities,” a UNHCR official in Nairobi told IRIN on Tuesday. “This will, however, depend on refugees being willing to return to their country of origin. We have been working on this and the government is prepared to receive them,” he added Tanzania is currently host to more than 350,000 Burundian refugees in camps in Kigoma region. The concern was that a peace deal worked out at the Arusha talks could lead to a flood of returnees in a country unable to cope and this, in turn, would increase pressure in the spheres of security and politics, humanitarian sources said on Tuesday.

At a recent seminar for UNHCR regional representatives in Dar es Salaam, Regional Director for East, Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region, Wairimu Karago, said UNHCR was planning to mobilise at least $196 million for the region through seminars, governments and donor agencies. The ‘East African’ weekly newspaper quoted her as saying that since the facilitator of the Burundi conflict Nelson Mandela took over his mediation work, there had been “remarkable developments in the process.” Karago said the UNHCR was planning a visit next month to the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and Kenya to create awareness on the plight of refugees.