Zimbabwe will repatriate hundreds of Rwandan nationals staying in the southern African country as refugees in compliance with the Cessation Clause which has certified Rwanda as safe for them to return, The New Times reports.
The Zimbabwean Minister for Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Prisca Mupfumira, said the Rwandans should go back and participate in the rebuilding of their country.
Mupfumira said that it was not the government of Zimbabwe that has taken the position for the Rwandan refugees to return to their country, but a move taken last year in Geneva affecting Rwandans everywhere they maybe.
She said Zimbabwe will comply with the Cessation Clause and repatriate all Rwandans by Dec 31 this year.
Some Rwandans refuse to return home saying that they have already started families in the country and can no longer leave.
Rwanda refugees fled to Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the 1994 Genocide.
Zimbabwe is host to many refugees mostly from Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo, Mozambique, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Rwandan government and UNHCR recently announced that voluntary returnees upon arrival in Rwanda, are given a lump sum of $250 per adult person to support their resettlement, while children are entitled to $150, The New Times reports.
About 280,000 Rwandans could be still living as refugees across 20 countries in the world, this according to the Country’s Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs.
