UNHCR Warns to Suspend Repatriation of Refugees
Ethiopia, September 23. The United Nations refugee agency has warned it will be forced to suspend the repatriation of 3,000 Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia unless it receives additional cash.
Despite a tripartite agreement between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ethiopia and Sudan, signed in February, only 2,500 refugees have returned to south Sudan. The UN agency fears it will have to suspend operations completely if the financial problems are not rapidly resolved, the deputy representative of the UNHCR in Ethiopia told IRIN.
"In total, 2,545 refugees returned from Ethiopia in April and May, then we had to stop because of the rainy season. Now we were really hoping to be able to go ahead, but the money is crucially missing," Fernando Protti said. "The money left is so small now, that we can't even go on with the registration activities, and even if we were registering them, we can't pay for their transport," he warned.
UNHCR estimates that the minimum amount necessary to be able to repatriate at least 3,000 more refugees of the 17,000 waiting is US$ 115,000. "This is the minimum we need to be able at least to clear one isolated camp and reduce another one," Protti explained.
Last week, UNHCR in Geneva sent out a general appeal to donors asking for an estimated $5.2 million a month to meet the critical needs of the operation for the last quarter of 2006. Meanwhile, the mission in Ethiopia is planning to write to all the embassies represented in Addis Ababa asking for financial help, Protti added.
"From my experience it is the first time that UNHCR has faced this kind of situation, where we have no more money for repatriation," Protti said. "As of today, 17,000 people are registered to be repatriated but if you ask, 90 percent of the refugees want to go back now… so it is an urgent issue," he added.
The funding shortfall also affects the repatriation of Sudanese refugees from Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic, where an estimated 350,000 southern Sudanese refugees are scattered waiting to go back home.
"These people could help in reconstructing south Sudan or at least reconstructing their lives. Here they are not allowed to work, they are dependent on the aid we give them, so instead of spending money to feed them in Ethiopia, we should rather spend it to be able to send them home and be autonomous again," Protti said.
About 70,000 Sudanese refugees are living in five camps in Ethiopia, some since the 1980s. The repatriation programme followed the signing in January 2005 of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the Sudanese government and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, the former rebel group that waged a two-decade-long military campaign for greater autonomy for southern Sudan.
Since the start of the repatriation operation in December 2005, only 12,000 refugees have gone back to southern Sudan with UNHCR assistance. (Source: www.allAfrica.com)