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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
ERITREA: Repatriation of refugees from Sudan resumes
NAIROBI, 15 October 2003 (IRIN) - The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was due to resume the repatriation of thousands of Eritrean refugees from Sudan on Wednesday.
In a statement, it said some 36,000 Eritrean refugees would be assisted to go home. The repatriations had been suspended on 8 July because of the long rainy season which hampers road travel in many parts of eastern Sudan. The area is host to about 100,000 Eritrean refugees.
The refugees will be taken to the border town of Kassala, beyond which they will be transferred onto Eritrean buses and trucks. The first convoy of 134 people who have registered to return was expected to cross the border on Wednesday morning.
In Eritrea, they will receive a cash grant, basic household supplies and three-months of food provided by the World Food Programme. They will then make their own way to their villages of origin, mostly in the Gash-Barka region of southwestern Eritrea.
UNHCR said it expected to have convoys every fourth day from Sudan to Eritrea. Since May 2001, some 103,000 Eritrean refugees have returned from Sudan, more than 50,000 of them with UNHCR assistance, the statement said.
Themes: (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs
[ENDS]
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