Restart of refugee returns "very positive" - UNHCR

The repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan resumed this week after the operation was suspended for 11 months due to bad weather and heightened tension between the two governments. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said 394 refugees came home on Monday after it reached agreement with both sides to open a humanitarian corridor to facilitate the repatriations. The border between the two countries has been closed since last October after accusations and counter-accusations regarding military activity in the area. As a result, the repatriation procedure has changed. Previously, trucks bringing the refugees home made the journey from Sudan all the way to the western Eritrean town of Tesseney where UNHCR has its facilities. But now, Sudanese trucks and buses drop the refugees at the border between the Sudanese town of Laffa and Talatasher in Eritrea, where they are picked up by Eritrean vehicles. Wendy Rappeport, UNHCR's spokeswoman in Asmara, told IRIN the operation worked extremely well. "It took less than 45 minutes to transfer the refugees at the border," she said. While she acknowledged that the operation was slightly more cumbersome, she said the resumption of the repatriations was a "very positive move" and signified a confidence-building measure between the countries. "The governments are cooperating on this through the auspices of UNHCR," she pointed out. She said UNHCR hoped to bring back a couple more convoys before the imminent start of the rainy season. The operation would then restart in September/October. The agency has registered about 36,000 refugees who want to return voluntarily from Sudan, but it expects more Eritreans to register once they see the success of the operation. So far, 103,000 Eritreans have returned home from Sudan since July 2000. Refugee status for Eritreans ended in December 2002 after UNHCR decided that the circumstances for such a status no longer existed for most Eritreans.