Refugee repatriation gets underway

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on 12 May began the process of repatriating Eritrean refugees living in camps in Kassala and Al-Qadarif [Gedaref] states in eastern Sudan. A first convoy carrying 932 refugees left Lafa refugee camp in Kassala, the agency told IRIN on Monday. The majority of Eritreans living in Sudan has been there since well before May 1993, when Eritrea declared independence after a long liberation struggle with Ethiopia, but tens of thousands more crossed into the country in May and June last year when war between the two countries caused tens of thousands of Eritreans to leave their homes. Of the estimated 95,000 who fled at that time, most have since been repatriated either spontaneously or with UNHCR help, but some 27,000 of this “new caseload” remain, according to the refugee agency. More than two-thirds of the refugees in Sudan (147,000 “old caseload” exiles and the 27,000 “new” refugees) are reported to be from the western Eritrean area of Gash Barka. Since UNHCR started their latest registration exercise two weeks ago, over 17,000 Eritreans have registered to return home. The agency plans to run two convoys a week until July, when seasonal heavy rains are expected to slow down the operation. The first three convoys will be limited to 1,000 returnees each, with the number rising to 1,500 per trip thereafter, an official told IRIN on Monday. UNHCR has been caring for Eritrean refugees in Sudan longer than for any other large group of exiles. The first such group went to Sudan in the mid-1960s after Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie annexed the territory in 1962, and people fled the first hostilities in the Eritrean war of independence. That conflict and periods of drought drove progressively larger numbers of civilians into Sudan, especially between 1975 and 1978 when over 200,000 Eritreans sought safety, and again in 1980-1981 when, during renewed struggles and crop failures, the refugee population climbed to 419,000. The current UNHCR repatriation exercise is initially aimed at facilitating the return of those “new” refugees who fled the serious fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea in May-June last year. Over 25,000 travelled home aboard UNHCR trucks between August and November, but 27,000 are still living in camps in Kassala and Al-Qadarif states, according to the agency. After signing up for return, refugees will undergo a health screening and get a two-month ration of food from the WFP. Convoys carrying returnees and their belongings will be escorted from the camps in Sudan to a reception centre in Teseney, Gash Barka Region, southwestern Eritrea, where the refugees will be registered and provided with documentation by the Eritrean government, UNHCR stated. From Teseney, returnees will either go directly home or pass through transit centers in Hageza and Barentu before reaching their final destinations, according to the refugee agency. Returning refugees would be free to choose their final destinations within Eritrea and would go to existing communities (since no new settlements were envisioned), it said. Each returning family is due to receive blankets, mosquito nets, a stove and water barrel, a steel-and-canvas shelter, a set of hand tools and a cash grant of up to US $200 (depending on family size). Besides the initial two-month food package from WFP, the returnees will be eligible for additional food assistance on the same terms as Eritreans displaced inside their country by the recent war, according to UNHCR. In addition, the authorities in Eritrea are to provide land for returnees to build homes on and, depending on the area, up to two hectares of land to farm. UNHCR projects to help communities absorb the returnees are to concentrate on health care, education, and water/sanitation facilities. The refugee agency and the governments of Sudan and Eritrea, which met in Khartoum in late March 2001 to draw up the repatriation programme, estimate that at least 160,000 refugees of the 174,000 remaining in Sudan will opt to return home as part of this exercise. A target figure of 62,000 returnees has been set for this year, and the repatriation is due to be completed by the end of next year.