UNHCR denies forcing refugees to return home

The head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Zambia has denied assertions that her organization is forcing Rwandan refugees to return to their country, saying the UN agency can never be involved in “forced return but does facilitate voluntary repatriation of refugees.”, UNHCR Representative in Zambia Joyce Mends-Cole said it is not true that the organization is conniving to have Rwandan refugees be taken back to their country. Only those who fled the country as a result of the violence that erupted between 1959 and 1994 in that country will have their refugee status revoked, the official added. “UNHCR is recommending countries of asylum, including Zambia, to invoke the ‘ceased circumstances cessation clause’ in respect of Rwandan refugees who fled their country of origin between 1959 and Dec. 31, 1998, latest by June 30, 2013,” she said. According to the official, Rwandan refugees who fled their country after 1998 still retain their refugee status and that countries hosting Rwandan refugees have been given up to 30 June, 2013 to implement exemption procedures in which individual applications from Rwandan refugees are to be examined. This means individual Rwandans may have their status ceased at different points, between now and 30 June 2013, depending on where they are in the voluntary repatriation, local integration or exemption process, she added.She further said the UNHCR is advocating for local integration for those refugees whose best durable solution may be to remain in Zambia. As of Dec. 31, 2011, Zambia was hosting 4,659 refugees at two of its refugees camps -- Mayukwayukwa and Meheba -- in the western part of the country.