UNHCR opposed to forced repatriation of Rwandese refugees

By Xinhua
Global Times
September 25, 2009

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) declared on Wednesday that it was against forced repatriation of Rwandese refugees.

In a circular made public in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the UNHCR denounced the practice of rewarding the soldiers who were putting refugees back on the road for repatriation to Rwanda.

The UNHCR representative in DRC Mohamed Boukry said that UNHCR highly regards a system that allows for voluntary return of a refugee to his/her country.

The latest lot of the refugees had regrouped at assembly and dispatch points and thereafter to be attended to by UNHCR and her operational partners in the transit centers established at Bukavu or Goma for their documentation before the journey.

The UNHCR assures all the refugees in these centers that they will leave voluntarily and denounces any form of forced return to Rwanda.

Boukry pointed out that UNHCR believes in strict adherence to her mandate which is to protect refugees and search for durable solutions to their situation, especially by ensuring individual consent for repatriation.

The UNHCR has repatriated since the beginning of 2009 some 10,257 Rwandese refugees to their country. This figure is part of the 110,000, the number of Rwandese refugees that have been repatriated to Rwanda since the beginning of this exercise in 2001.

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