Returnees happy to be home after years away

Habib Said looked around slightly bewildered, taking stock of his new surroundings. He was seeing his country for the first time in 20 years. The rest of his years will probably be spent in this unfamiliar land, eking out a new existence for himself and his family. Habib is one of about 162,000 Eritrean refugees who will eventually return from camps in Sudan to a new life back home. So far, some 46,000 have come back and it is estimated that most will have returned from Sudan by the end of next year. If any remain behind, they will be on their own. The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has decided there is no reason for Eritreans to be refugees any more, and has given a deadline of 31 December 2002 for Eritrean refugees to register to return to their country. Those who consider they have “compelling reasons” not to go back will be evaluated. But for Habib there was no question of not returning. Forced to flee in 1983 at the height of Eritrea’s struggle for liberation from Ethiopia, he has been waiting for this moment.

Returnees arrive in Tesseney

“Eritrea is my homeland,” he said, speaking at the UNHCR reception centre in the border town of Tesseney, in the Gash Barka region, a day after his arrival from Sudan. “Home is home. Eritrea is now free,” he said. “But I hope the government will help us,” he added. Habib seems undaunted at the thought of rebuilding his life. In the camps in Sudan, he received food, water and shelter. His eight children, most of them born in Sudan, were educated in the refugee schools. Now he has to start from scratch again. In the new sites identified by UNHCR and the Eritrean government, the provision of services has to start all over again. Schools are still being built and some sites do not have water. Habib is originally from Humeray, near Keren, but - along with the majority of returnees - has chosen to settle in western Eritrea, parts of which are renowned for the fertile land and therefore good farming prospects. And this is part of the problem. CONSTRAINTS OF RESETTLEMENT

Twister at Gerset site in the Goluj area

The government has allowed returnees to settle where they want, but - according to the local administration - the fertile area of Goluj, south of Tesseney, cannot cope with the ever-increasing number of new arrivals. According to the Goluj administrator, Tesfa'Alem Berhe, there are about 20,000 returnees, in addition to some 50,000 people already living there. “We have the capacity for 40,000 people,” he says. “But already the number has reached 70,000.” The problem, he stresses, is not land availability, but the provision of services. “We don’t have enough water for everyone,” he says. Healthcare and education are also a problem in this rapidly burgeoning area. “If the services are increased, more people can come,” he adds. Non-governmental organisations and UN agencies are providing assistance by building schools, allocating shelters and improving the infrastructure. But UNHCR says the ultimate responsibility lies with the government to provide for its people. It also warns that without substantial development work in the area, the return could be at risk. Tesfa'Alem is worried about what will happen when the assistance package to returnees - supposed to last a year - runs out. The package includes a shelter structure, one blanket per person, mosquito nets, a kerosene stove, agricultural tools and kitchen utensils. Returnees also receive a cash grant of up to US $200 and food assistance. Another pressing issue in the Goluj area is that very little land has been cleared for farming. The rainy season is imminent and it is highly unlikely the fields will be ready in time for sowing. This means another round of food assistance until the next harvest. “We have distributed seeds, but this is meaningless unless the land is cleared,” stresses Tesfa'Alem. He says 38 percent of the returnee households are headed by women or elderly people unable to clear the land themselves. He believes the assistance should have lasted for more than a year. ONE OF AFRICA'S OLDEST REFUGEE GROUPS

Destroyed APC from liberation war in western Eritrea

The Eritreans in Sudan represent one of the oldest groups of refugees on the continent. The first camp was opened in 1967 to accommodate refugees fleeing the fighting between Eritrean guerrillas and the Ethiopian army. Huge numbers continued to leave the country as the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) battled for the country’s independence. At the height of the fighting in the 1980s, some 500,000 Eritreans had fled into Sudan. Thirty-seven year old Amna Mohamed Nur was among the first returnees to Eritrea a year ago, enticed by information campaigns to assure the refugees that conditions in the country had improved. She has settled in the now relatively well-established site of Gerset with her son and newborn baby. Her husband is still in Sudan, but she says he will join them soon. “We left without anything and returned without anything,” she says, recalling the day, 20 years ago, when fierce fighting in the Nakfa area triggered a spontaneous exodus. “We’re now trying to build a house, but there’s no grass,” she adds. Amna, who is still surviving on food rations, seems unfazed by her future. “I wanted my country,” she says adamantly, surveying the site which houses some 4,700 people. She says when the rations run out, they will start ploughing. Even though she originates from Haboro near Nakfa, she chose Goluj because she heard it was good for farming. In the rainy season, the region is transformed from a forbidding, arid dustbowl into fields of swaying crops such as sorghum and millet. It is a potential breadbasket for the country. HAPPY TO BE HOME Muhammad Siedin doesn’t remember his country. He was swept up in a massive exodus in 1981, aged four. Now he has returned with his wife Hawa Ali Kerar and their small son to a new life in an unknown land. But he is sure he wants to be here. “This is my country,” he says. “So I cannot compare it to where I was before.” He acknowledges that many of the services he had in the camp in Sudan are lacking in his new home at Dressa. “It will be sorted out,” he says simply. Muhammad, who is a member of the small Nara tribe, says he came back voluntarily six months ago “because I heard Eritrea was free”. He says he will encourage his friends still in Sudan to return. There had been anxiety among the Eritrean refugees in Sudan after rumours spread alleging that the mosques were being burnt down in their country. To ease their concerns, the Eritrean and Sudanese governments, along with UNHCR, embarked on a sensitisation campaign which included inviting elders and other representatives from the mostly Moslem refugee population to visit Eritrea and assess the situation for themselves. Muhammad was one of these and says he had no doubts about returning. Local officials say the existing population has welcomed the returnees and there is little tension. “They have their homes and their land and the returnees don’t interfere with them,” says the administrator of Goluj, Tesfa'Alem Berhe. The Gerset area, for example, with a settled community of 100 has seen the numbers swell to nearly 5,000.

Fetching water

The head of UNHCR in Tesseney, Tamba Amara, says most of the returnees’ complaints centre around the lack of water, and in some cases there have been fights over water. The commodity has to be trucked into sites like Dressa at an enormous cost. Education is also problematic. According to Amara, some families may opt to stay in Sudan because of their children’s education. There are no higher education facilities in the area, except for Tesseney. RETURNEES WELCOME The Eritrean authorities have welcomed the return of the refugees, and have expressed cautious optimism over the end of the refugee status for Eritreans. Yemane Gebreab, political affairs head of the ruling People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), told IRIN that all Eritreans have the same rights and obligations. “The idea that there is a refugee problem that is coming to a close, is welcome,” he said. “We want to end the period of this problem of Eritrean refugees in Sudan.” But, he said, if some refugees wanted to continue living in Sudan, “Eritrea respects that right”. He denied that the return of tens of thousands of refugees may be too overwhelming for the country. “Eritrea will support them in whatever capacity it can,” he stressed. He also rejected the idea that Islamic fundamentalism could become a problem associated with the mass return. “There may be some Islamic militants among them [the returnees], but there are no home-grown roots for fundamentalism in this country,” he said. “Islam is very traditional in Eritrea, it has been here since the days of the Prophet. Christianity is also long rooted, the two religions have co-existed for at least 13 or 14 centuries in this country ... So I don’t think this country is worried by fundamentalism.” For newly-arrived Habib Said, the priority now is to return to farming and to a dignified life whereby he can provide for his family. “Whether I succeed depends on God,” he says, “but I was in a hurry to return and I will survive.”