The UNHCR Assistant Commissioner, Soren Jessen-Petersen, leaves on Saturday for a five-day trip in the Western Sahara region, UNHCR spokesperson Kris Janowski said on Friday in Geneva.
UNHCR is the agency in charge of the repatriation to Western Sahara of some 100,000 Sahrawi who have been refugees in the Tindouf camps in Algeria for more than 25 years. Their return home will precede the referendum on self-determination for the Sahrawi population which is scheduled to take place in December 2000, Janowski said.
Jessen-Petersen will visit Algiers, Tindouf, Laayoune and Rabat and discuss the preparatory work of the repatriation programme with all parties involved, UNHCR said.
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