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We are clean on repatriation - UNHRC
2007-12-12 09:54:25
By Judica Tarimo
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has distanced its officials from charges that they have been deliberately applying delaying tactics in a conspiracy that has slowed down the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Tanzania.
According to the accusations, the UNHCR staff have been doing so in a move meant to make them keep their jobs for a little longer than scheduled.
A senior official with the UN agency, speaking exclusively to The Guardian in Dar es Salaam on Monday, swore that all UNHCR personnel were spotless clean and worked under no pressure or motive to frustrate repatriation process.
``The allegations are absolutely not true. There is no way our officials can block the repatriation process for any reason. They are there to support a common mission – and that means repatriation, integration, and resettlement of refugees,``said Eveline Wolfcarius, Associate External Relations Officer at the UNHCR office in the city.
``The UNHCR and all its officials in refugee camps have always worked hard to meet the deadline for the repatriation all Burundian refugees by the end of this fiscal year. It is simply impossible for the officials to act on the contrary,`` she observed.
Wolfcarius was responding to claims, mainly because of the fat salaries, handsome incentives and other gains that their jobs attract thanks to the presence of refugees in Tanzania, some UNHCR officials were deliberately delaying the registration of refugees for repatriation.
President Jakaya Kikwete pledged a couple of months ago to facilitate the peaceful and voluntary repatriation of all Burundian refugees by July next year.
The support is in line with the spirit of a broad tripartite agreement between the UNHCR and the governments of Tanzania and Burundi.
Sources intimated to this paper recently that dishonest UNHCR officials contributed to the slow computerised applications designed to support the registration and repatriation of refugees.
``There are two computerised systems in the processing of information on refugees. These are registration of all refugees in camps and registration of refugees wishing to return home on a voluntary basis. I am quite certain both systems are working to acceptable standards and they have been causing no delays,`` said Wolfcarius.
She also dismissed as groundless claims that UNHCR officials were deliberately tampering with the systems to sabotage the repatriation process for personal gains.
She noted that documented reports she was privy to show that the repatriation of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Burundian refugees has been ``positive throughout this year``.
She elaborated: ``This is a voluntary process; refugees are not forced to go back home. I cannot say that there will be zero refugees by the deadline given but it sounds realistic to say that, by the end of 2008, there will be only one camp for DRC refugees and only one for those from Burundi.``
Leaders of countries in Africa`s Great Lakes region have constantly pushed for the voluntary repatriation of all Burundian refugees, saying the political climate back home is no longer a threat.
Tanzania has repeatedly called on the international community to extend more humanitarian assistance towards the handling the crushing burden of the thousands of refugees it has been hosting for decades, chiefly from Burundi, DRC and Rwanda.
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