Refugee repatriation from Sudan on schedule

Nearly 9,000 Eritrean refugees have been successfully repatriated from Sudan in the last three weeks, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports. Since 12 May, seven convoys have made the crossing from Lafa, Gulsa, Wad Sharif and Shagarab camps in eastern Sudan under UNHCR’s voluntary repatriation programme. UNHCR and the governments of Sudan and Eritrea plan to repatriate up to 20,000 Eritreans before the start of seasonal heavy rains in July, and a total of 62,000 by the end of the year.

The presence of land mines in and around the 25 km-wide Temporary Security Zone (TSZ) was a major concern, UNHCR said in a statement. It was the policy of UNHCR and the Eritrean government that no refugee would be returned to areas which had not received authorisation from the relevant mine-clearance agencies, the statement added. Refugees wishing to return to non-approved areas were being asked to “stand at the end of the line for repatriation, until those areas are deemed safe for return”, UNHCR said.

The announcement followed a meeting between representatives of the eastern Sudanese state of Kassala and the Gash Barka Region of Eritrea on 3 June to discuss how best to cooperate in refugee repatriation. More than two-thirds of the 174,000 Eritrean refugees still in Sudan are reported to originate from Gash Barka, and it is hoped they will all be able to return home by the end of 2002.