The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) says it is planning to facilitate the voluntary repatriation for both South Sudanese and Sudanese refugees from neighboring countries to enhance development in the two countries.
The refugee agency said it is planning to put favorable conditions in both countries through the help of both governments to ensure a conducive environment for returnees.
Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner for Refugees visited South Sudan’s capital Juba on Friday and met President Salva Kiir to discuss the new UNHCR ‘Durable Solutions’ plan for refugees in both countries.
Speaking to journalists at a press conference at the UNHCR office in Juba over the weekend, Grandi said: “We are trying to say this initiative, the solutions initiative as we call it, can also be a way to do more development in where people go back. So, it will help development and it will help security when there is a good investment.”
He revealed that Sudan and South Sudan have produced over 7million refugees who live in the neighboring countries and said the UN refugee agency is finding difficulties in sourcing more funds from donors to cater for them.
“If you take the people that are refugees or displaced in Sudan, South Sudan, and in neighboring countries, we reach more than 7 million people. So, it is a lot of people and we have been assisting them for years with humanitarian assistance and it is difficult to mobilize,” Grande said. “How can we solve their problems so that we move to a more stable situation, either if they come back? What do we need to do to make them come back or stay in those countries, what do we do to help them?”
The High Commissioner for Refugees visited the two countries earlier in January to discuss with the two governments the plans for durable solutions for refugees and is set to meet Sudanese Prime Minister Dr. Abdalla Hamdok to follow up on the matter today, Monday.
UNHCR says it will provide a pocket of hope for returning refugees to help in stabilizing their daily lives upon return and that they have identified 4 to 5 counties across South Sudan with relative peace.
Grandi qualified that UNHCR will not force any refugee to return to their country but said the durable solutions plan will also develop a legal framework for refugees living in both countries so that they will be given special status.
South Sudan has over 2 million refugees in neighboring Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Central Africa Republic, DRC Congo, and Sudan.