Zimbabwean Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said the southern African country will repatriate thousands of Rwandan refugees by the end of the year.

Mnangagwa, who is also Zimbabwe’s Minister of Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, said Rwanda was now a safe and peaceful country and, therefore, the refugees must go back and participate in the development of their country.

"The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has informed us and the world at large that peace has returned to Rwanda and we are urging the Rwandan refugees to go and have a look back home and see the peace that is there.

"We will make sure that there is a smooth transition for these refugees to go back home by December 31,” Munangagwa said during belated World Refugees Day commemorations held at the Tongogara Refugee Camp in Chipinge, close to 500 kilometres south east of the capital, Harare.

About 564 Rwandan refugees are residing at Tongogara Refugee Camp while more, said to be in thousands, are scattered across the country having had integrated into communities.

The United Nations has evoked the Cessation Clause which declares Rwanda safe for its refugees across the world to return.

Under the cessation clause, United Nations member states hosting Rwandan refugees have to comply with the declaration.

But some refugees from Rwanda in Zimbabwe are resisting repatriation despite assurances by the UNHCR that their country is now safe and peaceful.

During a recent visit to the refugee camp, the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Prisca Mupfumira, said Zimbabwe was bound by the cessation clause and will therefore entrusted to repatriate all Rwandan refugees residing within the country’s borders.

"It’s not the Government of Zimbabwe coming up with a position that Rwandans have to go back. It’s a position which was taken last year in Geneva affecting all Rwandans wherever they may be,” she said.

"The idea of being a refugee is not a permanent status. I was a refugee in the United Kingdom myself before independence, together with my permanent secretary (Ngoni Masoka). When independence came, UNHCR had to repatriate us back to Zimbabwe, to come and contribute to the development of our country. You can’t be a refugee forever,” the minister said.

She added: "In as much as we would want to help, it should be known that this is the position of the UN and not Zimbabwe, that come December 31, all Rwandans have to go (back home) unless there are individuals with special reasons that we might have to look at. But, generally, our hands as a country are tied. We have to comply.”

The majority of the refugees fled after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.

The Cessation Clause for Rwandan refugees was declared by the UNHCR on June 30, 2013. That clause applies to those who fled between 1959 and December 1998.

The instrument nullifies the refugee status of Rwandan nationals who fled the country within that period.

This leaves two options for the refugees; repatriate or become naturalised citizens of the host countries.

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