UN refugee chief set to celebrate successful repatriation of over 400,000 in Angola
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will embark on a four-day trip this weekend to Angola where he will attend a ceremony commemorating the fact that over 400,000 refugees who have returned home to the southern African nation which is recovering from an almost three-decade-long civil war that sent almost half a million people fleeing across its borders and displaced millions internally.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) will embark on a four-day trip this weekend to Angola where he will attend a ceremony commemorating the fact that over 400,000 refugees who have returned home to the southern African nation which is recovering from an almost three-decade-long civil war that sent almost half a million people fleeing across its borders and displaced millions internally.
High Commissioner António Guterres will arrive in Angola on Sunday, and his itinerary includes meetings with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos and other government authorities, representatives from the country’s neighbours, donors and UNHCR’s partners on the ground, the agency’s spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva today.
Mr. Guterres will also visit Viana refugee camp on the outskirts of Luanda, which houses thousands of Congolese refugees who have been residing in Angola for nearly four decades. UNHCR is currently working with the Angolan Government to grant these refugees permanent residency.
The repatriation event, which will take place next Tuesday in the capital Luanda, marks the official end of the organized voluntary repatriation programme. Of the 457,000 Angolans believed to refugees in the country’s neighbours when the peace accord was reached at the end of the civil war in 2002, nearly 410,000 have returned home.
UNHCR launched the assisted return programme with the help of neighbouring countries in 2003. The agency and other Governments, in particular Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which housed the majority of Angolan refugees, coordinated the returns. Other refugees returned home from Namibia, the Republic of Congo, Botswana and South Africa.
During the four-year UNHCR repatriation scheme, the agency organized the return of almost 140,000 refugees in total, with the last of the refugees arriving this month by air from the DRC.
UNHCR also aided over 100,000 Angolans who returned to their country on their own, while an additional 154,000 are believed to have repatriated and re-integrated without the agency’s assistance.
Approximately 47,000 Angolans did not accept UNHCR’s offer of voluntary repatriation and the agency is seeking other solutions for them.
Within Angola, UNCHR is concentrating on efforts towards sustainable reintegration of refugees, both internal and from abroad, through the construction or rehabilitation of 75 health posts, clinics and nurses’ houses, in addition to 60 schools and teachers’ homes. Microcredit has been extended to 10,000 people.
“Securing the future of the returnees – as well as the millions of internally displaced who have come home – is a long-term development need that is beyond the resources or mandate of UNHCR,” Mr. Redmond said, calling on the Government of Angola and its development partners to spearhead rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts.