Africa-Press – Uganda. REFUGEES |A total of 603 Burundi refugees who have been in Uganda for close to 10 years started a voluntary repatriation to their country on Monday.Under the Uganda/Burundi/ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) tripartite Commission on the Voluntary Repatriation of Burundi Refugees in Uganda, the first batch of 61 refugees left Entebbe for Bujumbura aboard Uganda Airlines.According to communication from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM), the remaining will travel in separate batches in the coming days.As part of adherence to measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, all those repatriated have been tested and found negative of COVID-19, 72 hours before departure. They were accompanied on the flight by Godfrey Byaruhanga and Arthur Mugarura from the OPM and Dancun Mato from the UNHCR. David Kazungu, the commissioner for refugees in the Office of the Prime Minister, said the individuals who are returning to Burundi voluntarily registered and expressed their desire to return to their home country.The refugees we talked to before departure appreciated the generosity of the leadership and people of Uganda for hosting them for many years.In particular, they thanked President Yoweri Museveni for his consistent spirit of pan-Africanism and for championing a progressive and open-door refugee policy that welcomes people who flee to Uganda’s in search of safety and security. Uganda currently hosts over 1.4 million refugees from different countries in the region, including South Sudan, DR Congo, Rwanda, Somalia and Eritrea.The Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, welcomed the news and praised the generosity of host communities that have lived and sheltered the refugees for many years.”As we have always observed, no one ever chooses to be a refugee. So, it is only proper to treat people who flee their homes in search of safety, humanely, with dignity and respect,” Rugunda said.”We thank our partners, especially the UNHCR, the World Bank and others for their long-standing solidarity with Uganda in supporting refugees and host communities. I am, therefore, pleased that these brothers and sisters have made a voluntary decision to return to their home country,” he added.The repatriation flights have been organised and funded by the UNHCR.
