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UN wants DRC refugees home
22/04/2004 14:19 - (SA)
Kinshasa - The United Nations hopes to repatriate within the next two years all the refugees who have fled the Democratic Republic of Congo, a senior UN official said in Kinshasa on Wednesday.
During the next two years the UN High Commission for Refugees would be examining with the DRC authorities the best way of assuring the orderly and safe return of Congolese refugees dispersed abroad, Wendy Chamberlin, deputy UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told reporters.
The UNHCR, which has given refugee status to 350 000 Congolese, wants there to be a simultaneous return home by the estimated 200 000 to 230 000 refugees from various different countries who have sought shelter in DRC.
Before leaving for a visit to camps for Rwandan refugeees in the east of the country Chamberlin said she had discussed with the Congolese authorities, whose co-operation she praised, the establishment of a corridor to help the return of DRC refugees in neighbouring countries.
On Tuesday she had visited the southeast of the country where she had met refugees from Angola, estimated to number 6 000, as well as Congolese expelled from mining areas of Angola. She said they were stranded by the absence of transport to take them home and said the HCR would provide transport for those concerned, 99% of whom were young people without families.
The DRC government has claimed that Angola has caused mayhem by expelling tens of thousands of Congolese.
Angolan authorities are reported to have rounded up more than 60 000 foreigners, most of them Congolese and some west Africans, over the past four months during joint army and police operations to crack down on diamond trafficking by foreigners.
The expulsions peaked in early April with a daily influx of about 2 500 people into regions of DRC, where water, food and housing are scarce, according to UN relief officials.
About 40 000 returnees have been registered in DRC since the beginning of April, the United Nations has said.
- SAPA
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