Returns to Kosovo

Briefing notes

Returns to Kosovo

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

6 July 1999

Returns to Kosovo reached the 600,000 mark today. Most of these refugees have returned spontaneously, but UNHCR is now organizing daily returns from Albania and the FYR of Macedonia for refugees unable to arrange their own travel, and the first organized returns from Montenegro should take place tomorrow. We estimate that fewer than 150,000 refugees and displaced persons remain in the surrounding countries.

Arrangements are also being worked out to start the first voluntary repatriation from Europe and other areas to which Albanians were evacuated during the crisis.