Rwanda optimistic of massive influx of returnees before year-end

Rwanda is optimistic of a massive influx of returnees before Dec. 31, 2017, according to the country's minister for disaster management and refugee affairs.

Seraphine Mukantabana told Xinhua on Monday that she is optimistic that the majority of Rwandans living in foreign countries as refugees will pour into the country as the date set by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) gets near, for fear of losing their refugee status.

The UNHCR approved the Rwandan Cessation Clause in December 2011 but extended its application to June 30, 2013, and then to Dec. 31, 2017.

The Cessation Clause provides for three options: voluntary repatriation, invocation of refugee status and local integration, and individual application for refugee status with convincing reasons.

"Any Rwandan refugee residing in different countries across the world won't be considered as refugees any more by Dec. 31, 2017, and neither the government of Rwanda nor the UNHCR will recognize their status," Mukantabana said. "They will not be refugees anymore; they will be considered as immigrants."

She noted that Rwanda, together with UNHCR, has embarked on a campaign to sensitize Rwandans living as refugees to voluntarily return home ahead of the date set in the Cessation Clause.

"We have given enough time to Rwandans who could be living as refugees to repatriate, given the fact that we have been able to extend Cessation Clause since 2011," she said.

"Rwanda is safe, secure and peaceful. They should use the remaining time to plan their relocation, or acquire citizenship of host countries, or obtain the requisite documents and stay legally as Rwandan citizens," the minister said.

The UNHCR is offering cash packages to any Rwandan refugee who returns home before the end of 2017, according to UNHCR officials.

The package provides 250 U.S. dollars to each adult Rwandan refugee and 150 dollars to any of their minors who return home before the Cessation Clause expires.

Returnees are also offered free medical insurance for a year, a free mobile phone and free transportation to any destination within the country.

The new cash incentive assistance replaces the distribution of essential household items that refugees used to get upon return, tempting some of them to sell part or all of what was provided.

About 3.4 million refugees have repatriated since 1994, the majority of them from the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the Rwanda ministry for disaster management and refugee affairs.

The ministry says that an average returning rate of Rwandans still living in exile has been around 2,000 a year.

The government of Rwanda has already prepared Nyarushishi camp in Rusizi District, Eastern Province, to receive the returnees.

Millions of Rwandans fled into exile from 1959 through to 1994.

Rwanda estimates that about 280,000 Rwandans could be still living as refugees across 20 countries in the world, with the biggest number of them, close to 245,000, living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Endit