UN refugee head travels to Africa to spotlight plight of returnees

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) António Guterres left today on an eight-day mission to four African nations that will culminate in Liberia next week when he marks World Refugee Day on June 20 with some of the hundreds of thousands of returning refugees and displaced now struggling to rebuild their country.

During the first stage of the mission in Tanzania and Burundi, Mr. Guterres will be joined by EU Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Louis Michel to get a first-hand look at major refugee and repatriation operations in the Great Lakes region.

“In both the Great Lakes region and in Liberia, hundreds of thousands of people are making the choice to return to their devastated homelands in the hope they can rebuild their lives,” UNHCR spokesperson Jennifer Pagonis told reporters in Geneva today.

“While the huge numbers of refugees going home is indeed good news, we still have to worry about what happens to them once they get there. For many, rebuilding their lives at home can be even more of a struggle than life in a refugee camp, where they at least had access to basic services such as health care, primary education, shelter, food and clean water.”

The EU’s Humanitarian Aid Department has been crucial to UNHCR's work and Mr. Guterres and Mr. Michel want to underscore the need for sustained international involvement in helping nations emerging from conflict.

“According to the UNDP [United Nations Development Programme], half of all countries emerging from conflict slip back into violence within five years. One of our major challenges therefore is ensuring that returnees are not forced to flee again, a point that the

High Commissioner and Mr. Michel are underscoring throughout their mission,” Ms. Pagonis said.

Among other engagements during their trip, Mr. Michel and Mr. Guterres will meet refugees in Tanzania who are going back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where they face enormous difficulties. For example in South Kiva, 70 per cent of return areas are accessible only on foot, while 80 per cent of schools no longer exist.

The two officials will then spend Friday and most of Saturday in Burundi, including visits to camps and transit centres on the Burundi-Tanzania border as well as meetings with senior government officials and partners before travelling to Nairobi on Saturday evening to conclude the joint mission.

Mr. Guterres will fly to Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, next Sunday and will hold meetings with various government officials on Monday before travelling to Monrovia, Liberia. On World Refugee Day next Tuesday – the theme of which for this year is ‘Hope’ – Mr. Guterres is scheduled among other activities to welcome a repatriation convoy bringing Liberian refugees from Sierra Leone and will then accompany them on their journey home.

The High Commissioner returns to Geneva on June 22.