Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security director for
refugee management and welfare Thobo Letlhage told the state-run Botswana Daily
News that the five Zimbabwean males have served her ministry with a statutory
notice challenging the ongoing process of taking them back to their homeland.
She, however, said the challenge did not affect the process
of repatriating those who had registered to voluntarily return home.
According to Letlhage, those who had registered for
voluntary repatriation have been divided into four groups, with the first batch
of 48 Zimbabwean refugees having left Dukwi Refugee Camp in central Botswana on
Tuesday this week.
A second group of refugees was expected to leave this week
while two other batches would be repatriated next week.
The repatriation exercise follows a decision by the
Botswana authorities government, Zimbabwe government and the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees that the conditions that initially made the
refugees flee their homeland had since changed and they were no longer under
threat if they returned home.
There are about 700 Zimbabwean refugees at Dukwi camp, the
majority of whom escaped alleged persecution by the government.
Letlhage said should all the Zimbabwean refugees be
repatriated, the camp would be left with about nationals of Somalia, Rwanda,
Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.
She said the situation in those countries would continue to
be monitored and assessed and their nationals repatriated when conditions
improved.
JN/APA
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