Refugee Camps Visited

Refugees boarding the Liemba

Embassy POL Officer, Steve Kenoyer, and State Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) Desk Officer Wendy Henning visited the Congolese refugee camps of Kala and Mwange in northeast Zambia on June 12-13.  Then they accompanied a convoy of 511 returning Congolese refugees up Lake Tanganyika aboard the commercial boat S.S. Liemba.  Arriving in Moba on June 15, the American officers spent two days visiting refugee reintegration projects and monitoring the situation of recent returnees and receiving communities.

Most of the refugees had fled armed conflict in the DRC in 2000-01.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began a facilitated repatriation program in May 2007 in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).  The first year, UNHCR facilitated the return of 7,900 refugees to the DRC.  In 2008, 9,700 refugees returned.  And for this year, the UNHCR plans to repatriate 18,500 Congolese, although this goal might not be attained.