Rwanda returns from Uganda cross 1,000
Since the start of voluntary repatriation in January, some 1,100 Rwandan refugees have gone home from Uganda as the government in Kigali steps up efforts to welcome its refugees back.
MBARARA, Uganda, March 29 (UNHCR) - More than 1,100 Rwandan refugees have gone home from Uganda this year in an ongoing repatriation movement organised by the UN refugee agency that started in January.
On Monday morning, 228 Rwanda refugees - about half of them children - left Nakivale camp in Uganda's south-western Mbarara district. They travelled south in five UNHCR trucks and crossed the Rwandan border, where they were welcomed by fellow Rwandans. The returnees were visibly happy to be back. Many had not seen their home country in at least 10 years, while their children had been born in the settlements and were setting foot in Rwanda for the first time.
Two more convoys of a similar size from Uganda's Oruchinga and Kyaka II camps are scheduled to follow this week. Of the 3,000 Rwandan refugees who have registered for the UNHCR return programme this year, the agency expects that more than half will have returned to their country by the end of this week.
An estimated 2 million people fled Rwanda in the wake of the 1994 genocide. UNHCR believes that as at mid-2003, there were still some 60,000 Rwandan refugees in the region. Uganda hosts some 18,000 of them, whom the government hopes to assist home under a voluntary repatriation agreement with the Rwandan government and UNHCR.
The Rwandan authorities have established a transit camp at Byumba, 25 km from the border with Uganda, that can register more than 500 people per day. This modern facility was built to speedily process the returnees back to national status within one day, after which each family will receive a repatriation package containing a basic kitchen set, plastic sheeting, blankets, jerry cans and soap.
The repatriation exercise will continue as long as refugees wish to return home from Uganda's Kyaka II, Nakivale and Oruchinga refugee settlements. A UNHCR-sponsored information campaign is keeping them abreast of safety conditions in Rwanda and urging them to register for an orderly and swift return home.
Eager to welcome back its refugees, the newly-elected government in Rwanda has signed similar agreements with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The UN refugee agency expects to help two-thirds of the remaining 60,000 Rwandan refugees in the region to return home this year.
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Opening Statement by Mrs. Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at the Tripartite Commission Rwanda/Zaire/UNHCR, Geneva, 25 September 1995
25 Sep 1995 ... Commission in the context of the Tripartite Agreement on Repatriation of Rwandan Refugees from Zaire. ... Rwandan Government is actively engaged in re-integrating returnees from Burundi and Uganda. ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2004 - Democratic Republic of the Congo
1 Dec 2003 ... and civil society. • Facilitate the repatriation of Rwandan and Burundian refugees and the mass ... Angola (refugees) 110,500 39,800 Sudan (refugees) 75,500 76,000 Uganda (refugees) 23,000 ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2000 - Democratic Republic of the Congo
1 Dec 1999 ... Continue to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees and find alternative durable ... bouring countries including Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Uganda and Rwanda. ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2000 - Rwanda
1 Dec 1999 ... ... As in 1999, UNHCR will continue to facilitate the voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugees from the DRC, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda and other countries. Some 40,000 returnees are foreseen. The ...... -
2004 Global Refugee Trends: Overview of refugee populations, new arrivals, durable solutions, asylum seekers and other persons of concern to UNHCR
17 Jun 2005 ... ... Burundi (20,700), Yemen (16,600), Uganda (15,500), Rwanda (14,100), the Syrian Arab Republic ... Voluntary repatriation 19. Based on reports from countries of asylum (departure) and ...... -
UNHCR Country Operations Plan 2006 - Namibia
1 Sep 2005 ... Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and Congo-Brazzaville, and from various African countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, ... in Osire camp had indicated their wish to repatriate voluntarily. ...... -
UNHCR Global Report 2009 - Uganda
1 Jun 2010 ... Uganda Operational highlights l UNHCR assisted some 153,000 ... assistance. l The Post-Repatriation Rehabilitation and ... repatriation of Sudanese refugees and some Kenyans and Rwandans. ...... -
Rwanda Returnee News No. 3
15 May 2004 ... Musime the Administrative Officer of the Rwanda Refugee Repatriation Commission said every Rwandan had a ... The teams are: APR and Kiyovu (Rwanda), Villa and Express (Uganda), Ulinzi Stars (Kenya), ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2003 - Zambia
1 Dec 2002 ... agreements between the Governments of DRC, Rwanda and Uganda on the withdrawal of foreign troops from ... Although no major sponta- neous repatriation movement has yet taken place in 2002, it is ......