Refugees ready to go back if tensions ease

Tanzanian refugees who fled to Kenya from the islands of Pemba and Zanzibar have told UNHCR that they would be ready to return home “if talks between the government and the opposition [Civic United Front (CUF)] lead to a declaration that would ease tensions on the islands”. The refugees made their intentions known during a meeting with UNHCR and Kenyan officials on Monday at their current temporary site at Shimoni along Kenya’s coast, a UNHCR statement said. The refugees said that a joint declaration resulting from the discussions between the Tanzanian government and the CUF would be “the signal they were waiting for to go back home”. “UNHCR is waiting for a formal agreement to start making preparations for the return,” the agency’s spokesman, Kris Janowski, said in Geneva on Tuesday. He said calm in Pemba and Zanzibar now prevailed after clashes between opposition supporters and security forces last January had driven 2,400 people into Kenya. “Some 1,300 refugees remain in Shimoni, while the rest have moved in with friends and relatives among local inhabitants,” Janowski said. According to the agency, Kenyan authorities have agreed to delay until Thursday the planned controversial transfer of the refugees to Dadaab camp, northeastern Kenya. The operation was originally slated to haave started on 19 April, after Kenyan officials rejected establishing an alternative site closer to the coast. UNHCR has made arrangements for a transfer to Dadaab, including supplying the refugees with medical care and food during the 600-km journey. It has indicated, however, that it will not transfer any refugees who do not volunteer to go, noting that so far no one from the group has signed up for the transfer.