Refugee census to improve camp conditions

The United Nations refugee agency is registering refugees living in the Horn of Africa state of Djibouti with a view to offering them better protection and services.

The exercise, which started on 22 December at Ali Adde camp, the main refugee settlement in the country, is the first of its kind in a decade, and is being carried out with the collaboration of the government of Djibouti, local NGOs and other UN agencies.

"It will enable us to better plan protection and also [improve] the management of the assistance which we bring to the refugees," said Shana Kaninda, representative in Djibouti for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

"It will also allow the authorities in Djibouti and UNHCR to better plan repatriation for those who would at the proper time wish to return to their homelands. For the refugees who need resettlement, this same tool will be very useful for us," he added.

The camp is located in the district of Ali-Sabieh, about 120 km southeast of the capital city of Djibouti. It hosts an estimated 10,000 refugees from Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

UNHCR and the government also plan to integrate some 2,000 refugees living in the Holl-Holl camp with those in Ali Adde, in order to create one refugee settlement, according to Kaninda. The Holl-Holl camp was declared closed in July 2006, but residents have been reluctant to move out.

However, the administrative chief of Ali Adde village, Moussa Robleh Djilal, has complained that the presence of a large number of refugees in an area previously inhabited by 3,500 people had taken its toll on the environment and the local economy.

"Desertification is worsening with this concentration [of people] and the price of petrol and kerosene has risen because of the high demand," said Djilal.

"The original 3,500 Ali Adde inhabitants have to share their meagre resources with 10,000 refugees. It is not proportional and the impact on the environment is irreversible," he added.

oh/jn/jm