UNHCR says government now understands repatriation regime

A senior UNHCR in Burundi, Guillermo Bettocchi, has said that government officials in the war-torn country now understand better the agency’s rules governing the repatriation of refugees to areas deemed unsafe. His assessment was the result of a two-day UNHCR-organised workshop in Bujumbura for non-governmental organisations and government officials, which ended on 13 August. “We explained how and why the UNHCR gets involved in refugee repatriation,” Bettocchi, a special adviser in the UNHCR’s Department of International Protection, told IRIN. Under international law, he said, repatriation “should be voluntary, durable and it should take place under conditions of security and dignity”. The agency has been critised in Burundi for its refusal to locate returning refugees in the south and other areas where there is fighting between rebels and government troops. Local authorities in Tanzania have also been pressuring the refugees from, some 345,926 of them (as at 30 June), to return home. Since February, UNHCR has been facilitating returnees willing to go to the north of the country where it is safe and 80,000 Burundians have so far registered for this voluntary return programme. “In order to help refugees, the UNHCR has to access them and be able to plan its activities. Unfortunately, the lack of security makes this impossible,” Bettocchi said. Therefore, refugees who return on their own volition to areas the UNHCR considers insecure cannot expect help. Some 16,000 refugees have returned spontaneously between 1 January and 4 August. Of these, 5,451 went to the eastern province of Ruyigi of which 4,102 went to Gisuru Commune. But the UNHCR says it has no access to the area because of insecurity. Humanitarian workers say that if the current ceasefire talks succeed in Dar es Salaam there could be a spontaneous rush of returnees. “The refugees, themselves, say that they wouldn’t need the UNHCR assistance. They say they would walk back, the same way they left,” one humanitarian worker said. “We would assist in the reintegration of people and we are ready for that. Funds are there,” Bettocchi said. [More on Burundi refugees in OCHA’s report: "Affected Populations in the Great Lakes Region"]