Ethiopia agrees to refugee repatriation

Ethiopia has agreed with Sudan and the UNHCR to repatriate thousands of its nationals exiled in neighbouring Sudan, a UNHCR spokesman told IRIN on Wednesday. The spokesman said UNHCR had agreed last September to withdraw blanket refugee for Ethiopians still living in Sudan after concluding that that the risk of political prosecution in Ethiopia no longer remained.

Hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians fled political repression prior to the fall of Mengistu Haile Mariam’s regime in 1991, primarily to Sudan and Kenya. Many took up refuge in large camps in Sudan, while others succeeded in integrating into Sudanese society by learning Arabic and moving to the larger cities there.

Paul Stromberg, the UNHCR spokesman in Nairobi, told IRIN that officially, some 12,000 Ethiopian refugees were currently living in camps in Sudan and receiving financial assistance. He added, however, that another 10,000 were not officially register red and living elsewhere in Sudan. To date, 2,047 of the refugees had been screened for acceptance by Ethiopian authorities thus far.

Citing political prosecution if they return, he said 1,200 people had
petitioned UNHCR to maintain their refugee status. While encouraging more
people to come forward for repatriation, Stromberg said “present and future petitions to maintain refugee status will be done on a case by case basis.” He added he hoped the repatriation programme would be completed by the end of this year.