Refugee numbers down in Uganda, Sudan

Uganda, Sudan and Tanzania were among the countries that registered "an important decrease in the refugee population" between January and end September this year, the UN refugee agency reported on Wednesday. The refugee population was down by 59,000 in Uganda, by 31,000 in Sudan and 28,000 in Tanzania at the end of September compared to 1 January, according to the results of the latest provisional quarterly study from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The reduced number of refugees in Uganda (where some 87 percent of the 178,000 refugee population is Sudanese) was mostly down to a reregistration and verification exercise in July, which logged a 23 percent reduction in the estimated number of refugees, UNHCR spokesman Paul Stromberg told IRIN on Friday. Sudanese refugee population figures fluctuate widely - in Kenya as well as Uganda - as a result of seasonal migration patterns, and variations in dependence levels in different geographic areas, he added. Refugee numbers from, and voluntary returns to Sudan, also ebb and flow in line with the pattern and intensity of conflict in different regions of that vast country. Most of the reduction of 31,000 refugees in Sudan was accounted for by the repatriation of Eritrean refugees (both recent, from the border war in 1998-2000, and longer-stay refugees) to their home country. The number also included a few thousand Ethiopians. The 28,000 drop in refugee numbers in Tanzania (despite continuing arrivals as a result of violent conflict in the DRC and Burundi, in particular) was mostly explained by a downward revision after a verification exercise, as well as the repatriation of about 5,000 Rwandans, according to Stromberg. Ethiopia also recorded a drop in the refugee population of 27,200 between January and September. Voluntary repatriations from Ethiopia during the first nine months of the year included 41,100 Somali refugees, but the net decline in the number of refugees Ethiopia hosted was only 27,700 because of new arrivals - almost all from Sudan early in the year. An estimated 12,800 Rwandan refugees returned home from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the same period, according to UNHCR. The report said 78,000 applications for refugee status were submitted in 84 countries for which statistics are available. Kenya received the second highest number of applications [after Egypt] at 6,130, while Burundi also received 1,810 applications. The largest refugee resettlement movements concerned Somalis (3,700), Sudanese (3,360) and Ethiopian (1,450) refugees resettled from Kenya. There were also 1,350 Sudanese resettled from Egypt. On the other side of the scale, six of the 10 countries (globally) that registered the largest increase in their refugee population were on the African continent. The Democratic Republic of Congo headed the list with an increase of 30,800 refugees. It was followed by Zambia (17,800), Kenya (14,800), Thailand (5,100), Cote d'Ivoire (4,200), and Rwanda (4,000). The refugee population in 87 asylum countries decreased by around four percent to five million people during the first nine months of the year, UNHCR reported on Wednesday. There are still an estimated 22 million people around the world 'of concern' to the agency, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), asylum seekers and returnees as well as refugees, it added.