UN agency relocates Congolese refugees to "safer environment"

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has completed a four-month operation to relocate Congolese refugees from a temporary border centre in Burundi to a camp in the northeastern province of Muyinga. "The last convoy of 724 Congolese refugees arrived [in Gasorwe Camp] Wednesday," UNHCR said in a report made available to IRIN on Friday. "This is a great success for us. When they were leaving Cishemeye, they were very happy." The refugees began arriving at the border centre in the province of Cibitoke in late 2002, after fighting intensified in the South Kivu Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). UNHCR set up the Cishemeye transit centre in January 2003 to provide an emergency shelter for the refugees. "It provided a safe haven for people fleeing the troubles in South Kivu, but it was too close to the border and, therefore, was necessarily only temporary," Michele Cavinato, UNHCR's protection officer in Burundi, said. Since February, eight convoys have carried 4,465 refugees away from the transit centre. The insecure location of the camp made assisting the refugees difficult. "Missions to the centre had to be accompanied by armed guards and UN security assessments would not allow systematic assistance to be provided in the area," UNHCR reported. Gasorwe camp is closer to the UNHCR's field office in Muyinga Province and would, therefore, allow for a more regular provision of aid. The new arrivals will join approximately 4,000 Congolese refugees already at Gasorwe, many of whom fled the conflict in DRC in 1998-1999 and were relocated to the camp in 2002, UNHCR said. The refugees were provided with food for the eight-hour journey and received household items such as blankets, water and food rations upon arrival at the camp. "There are much better conditions in the camp," Cavinato said. "Every family has their own little hut, while in Cishemeye people were staying in big communal halls with no privacy. In the camp, we also try to provide schools and assistance as best we can, while in Cibitoke Province, this would be pretty difficult." Gasorwe Camp is now host to some 8,168 Congolese refugees. Burundi authorities estimate that there are 40,500 Congolese refugees in the country.