More than 200,000 Kosovars are still to be repatriated from host countries, mostly from Germany and Switzerland. They are arriving in Kosovo in hundreds on a daily basis, but not all of them want to go home voluntarily. Some would like to avoid, or at least further postpone, facing the stark realities that await them there.

UNHCR Photo/R. LeMoyne

They left when Kosovo was ablaze, devastated by conflict and bombing. They now have to return to their homeland which can offer them very little. There is a shortage of housing, with up to 350,000 persons still living with host families, including those who reside with friends and relatives. Some 83,000 residential units are in need of essential repairs or reconstruction. The unemployment rate is about 65 per cent and, although the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is doing its utmost to foster economic growth and generate employment, any dramatic change is not going to happen soon. Many returnees will therefore face prolonged unemployment, hampering their own personal efforts to rebuild their homes and communities.

In this situation, UNMIK strives to ensure that refugee returns are planned, organized and coordinated. "Mass returns within a short period of time would be counterproductive to ongoing reconstruction and development efforts, potentially reversing the enormous progress made thus far and further heightening insecurity in the region", says UNMIK's Policy Paper on Repatriation of Kosovar Albanians. "The need for a phased and gradual return is, therefore, in the interests of all who wish to strengthen current efforts to rebuild a stable and prosperous Kosovo."

The Interim Administrative Council (IAC) on 26 May appealed to countries hosting Kosovo refugees to ensure that their return was carried out in a "controlled and humane fashion". The IAC expressed its deep appreciation of the hospitality offered to the people of Kosovo and paid particular tribute to Germany and Switzerland. It also welcomed the decision of some host countries to allow Kosovars in technical institutions to complete their courses.

According to Peter Kessler, spokesman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kosovo, more than 30,000 Albanians had returned to Kosovo between January and May 2000. Of that number, 1,500 were forced returns, almost all of these from Germany. In May, over 11,500 people arrived under organized repatriations, the most since September 1999.

"The number of organized returns is expected to rise to between 12,000 and 15,000 per month", Mr. Kessler said, adding that they had not so far caused major problems in terms of shelter. He nevertheless appealed to host countries to ensure that the returns are "orderly, gradual and humane".

But appeals can only delay returns. Eventually, Kosovar refugees will have to go home, and conditions must therefore be created to properly accommodate them. What steps are being taken to meet this challenge?

Actually, everything that UNMIK is doing contributes to improving the environment for refugees' repatriation. All efforts to reduce ethnic tensions, increase security, set up new political structures and rebuild economy serve this goal.

The Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS) departments, each covering a specific sector, have started ambitious programmes to restore and significantly improve public infrastructure, utilities and services. And participation of all Kosovars in these endeavours will only help achieve success faster.

But refugee returns should be phased and orderly, with optimal information-sharing on the number and profiles of returnees. According to the Policy Paper, UNMIK would also like to see "greater investments on the part of sending countries, so as to create the necessary conditions for a smooth transition and reintegration into Kosovo". To avoid an uncontrolled mass return from Western Europe, Governments should give priority to voluntary returns at a "manageable, yet stable pace", the Paper says. Maria Elena Andreotti, Chief of UNMIK's Office of Human Rights and Community Affairs, believes that every effort must be made to ensure that the pace, scale and timing of repatriation from the countries of asylum are the result of careful deliberation and planning. "UNMIK would therefore like to invite the host countries to work in close coordination and collaboration with its staff and its partners to guarantee not only the voluntary return of these individuals in dignity and safety, but also the ultimate success of all our efforts to build a prosperous, tolerant and multi-ethnic society in Kosovo", she says.