UNHCR to repatriate all camp-based refugees next year

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, intends to complete the repatriation of Angolan refugees living in camps in neighbouring countries by next year, and will then help those that have settled in the wider community to return home. UNHCR spokeswoman in Geneva, Jennifer Pagonis, said the agency was going "to try and complete the return" of the 53,000 refugees still in camps in Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia by 2005. "Estimates of Angolan refugees who have settled ... vary widely, ranging from 83,000 to around 200,000. It is planned that once the camp-based refugees are voluntarily repatriated, there will be a window of opportunity in 2006 for settled Angolan refugees to return home with UNHCR assistance, should they wish to do so," she said. This year UNHCR assisted nearly 51,000 Angolans to return home from Zambia (27,579), the DRC (19,082) and Namibia (4,189), with lesser numbers from Botswana, the Republic of Congo and South Africa, according to Pagonis. An additional 12,000 refugees returned on their own, bringing the total number of Angolans repatriated since the end of the civil war in 2002 to more than 281,000.