REPATRIATIONS OF ERITREANS FROM SUDAN RESUMES AFTER 11-MONTH BREAK

Article 1 of the Refugee Convention, 1951.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Governments of Eritrea and Sudan resumed the repatriation of Eritrean refugees from Sudan on 23 June after an eleven-month hiatus. Convoys had been suspended in July 2002 due to the rainy season, and then delayed by border tensions between Sudan and Eritrea. The border area still remains closed to civilian traffic, but the agency managed to persuade the two governments to open a humanitarian corridor to allow the passage of return convoys.

Some of the Eritrean refugees in Sudan fled their homes during the more than 30 years of war that preceded the country’s independence from Ethiopia in 1993: UNHCR assisted in establishing the first camp for these refugees in Sudan in 1967. Some of these refugees were born in exile and have never seen their homeland, while others fled during the recent border conflict fought between Eritrea and Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000.

The Voluntary Repatriation Operation, organized by UNHCR and the Governments of Sudan and Eritrea, began in 2000 with the return of Eritreans who had fled the border conflict. In May 2001, UNHCR began a major repatriation operation for the return of long-term refugees from Sudan.

The first return convoy, which comprised eight buses carrying 394 people and 42 luggage trucks, crossed the border between Laffa in Sudan and Talatasher in Eritrea on 23 June – three days after World Refugee Day which is observed each year on 20 June. At a transit point at the border, their luggage and livestock were transferred to waiting trucks, and the returnees were taken to a reception centre in the Eritrean border town of Tesseney. Many of them then proceeded to their villages of origin near Tesseney after receiving an identity card and a reintegration package that consisted of a cash grant, basic household supplies and three months’ worth of food supplied by the UN World Food Programme.

Since the resumption of the operation in June, five convoys have taken a total of 1,653 refugees from Sudan to Eritrea (see chart). The final convoy of the season left Sudan on 8 July, to take some 240 Eritreans home. "The Voluntary Repatriation Operation is expected to resume at the end of the rainy season, when the roads are passable again" said Wendy Rappeport, UNHCR External Relations Officer.

Since July 2000, some 104,000 Eritrean refugees have returned from Sudan. The agency has registered 36,102 Eritrean refugees in camps in Sudan who want to return voluntarily, but it expects more Eritreans to register once they see the success of the operation.

Established in 1950, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is mandated to lead and co-ordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. In more than five decades, the agency has helped an estimated 50 million people restart their lives.

World Refugee Day, which is marked each year on June 20, focused this year on refugee youth, putting the spotlight on their needs, their potential and their drive to create a better future for themselves and their communities. In refugee camps in Ethiopia, a series of activities were organized to celebrate the Day, including campaigns on the environment, health, sanitation, and to promote the active participation of refugee youth in the prevention and control of harmful traditional practices. Two young Ethiopians stayed with refugees in a camp for three days and experienced refugee life, which was documented by the local TV station ETV. In Eritrea, a country-wide essay competition in English for High School students was coordinated through the Ministry of Education.