Eritrean refugees set to go home

The voluntary repatriation of 62,000 Eritrean refugees from Sudan will begin next week, the official Sudanese news agency, Suna, reported on 6 May. The refugees will be returned to their homes from the Sudanese border camps of Qulsah, Al-Laffah, Wad Shaqarab and Wad Sharif, Suna said. Suna quoted the Sudanese commissioner for refugees, Muhammad al-Aghbash, as saying that the voluntary repatriation programme would be completed by the end of July, in time for the start of the next rainy season. Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki told the UN Special Representative, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, on 22 April that Eritrea considered the return of the displaced persons before the start of the rainy season a top priority. A report to the UN Security Council on 19 April said that only a few thousand refugees had so far returned, most to areas of the TSZ which were under Eritrean control during the hostilities. A committee had been established to provide humanitarian assistance to returning civilians in the TSZ, the Suna report added.