LUSAKA, Zambia, October 15 (UNHCR): Six Congolese were mobbed by fellow refugees eager for news earlier this month when they returned to camps in northern Zambia after paying a “go-and-see” visit to their home areas in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The visit to Moba district abutting Lake Tanganyika was organized by the UN refugee agency as part of efforts to promote the repatriation over the next two years of some 30,000 Congolese refugees living in the Kala and Mwange camps.
– The six refugees [three men and three women] had a first-hand look at conditions and reintegration programmes in their home areas in the Moba district of Katanga province, said James Lynch, UNHCR’s representative in Zambia, who travelled with the refugees. -Last Friday they held the first in a series of meetings with fellow refugees in Kala and Mwange, he added.
Isaac Ndala, a senior UNHCR field clerk who is coordinating the meetings, said refugees in the camps had mobbed the six because they were so keen to hear first-hand impressions about the situation back home after years in exile.
– We’ll continue with these meetings in the two camps for the whole of this week. It is hoped that those refugees who are still hesitant will be persuaded to consider returning home, said Ndala.
The six refugees who took part in the go-and-see visit were chosen from both camps, which are located some 300 kilometres from the border with DRC. They represented a good cross-section of the refugee population in the two camps. They travelled by road to Moba via the town of Pweto.
Læs mere her: http://www.unhcr.org/news/NEWS/48f60b472.html
