Mauritania: Thousands of returnees await legal status

BOYINGEL THILLE, 26 November 2008 (IRIN) - The Mauritanian government has promised thousands of repatriated citizens waiting for their residency papers for nearly a year that they will receive identity cards by year's end.

"Without papers, I cannot leave this [returnees] camp because I cannot get past the police checkpoints," said Abdoulaye Samba Sow, chief of one of the 34 tent communities for returnees located in the southern regions of Trarza and Brakna.

Sow belongs to one of about 100 families who chose to live in Boyingel Thille, 300km east of the capital Nouakchott toward the Senegalese border, after returning to Mauritania in March 2008. "We waited for almost 20 years only to come and sit here in more tents, still labelled as refugees," said Sow, showing IRIN his permit of occupancy stamped "repatriated" across the top.

Tens of thousands of mostly black Mauritanians fled ethnic killings carried out by security forces in the early 1990s. Some fled to Mali but most to Senegal.

"This is the only document I have after eight months in my country. I could have stayed in Senegal," Sow told IRIN. "At least there, I had more cattle, running water and I was free to move wherever I pleased. If I am not going to have any legal status, I would rather be stateless in Senegal. But we are Mauritanians. We have a right to be recognised as such."

Herder Idrissa Sow said he cannot look for work to supplement his herding income. "We are used to having hundreds of cattle. I have been given two cows. But where would I go to find other work? Who will hire me when I cannot prove I have a right to be here?"

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Nouakchott office, since January 5,032 persons have been escorted back to Mauritania in UN convoys, mostly from Senegal.

The tripartite repatriation agreement signed by Senegal, Mauritania and UNHCR in November 2007 stated that repatriated Mauritanians should have their citizenship papers within three months of their arrival.

Year-end promise

Ba Madine, director of the governmental National Agency to Assist and Integrate Refugees (ANAIR), said the Mauritanian government is trying to make up for lost time. "When the current government took power [6 August military coup], these refugees did not have their papers. That was already well past the three-month [tripartite agreement] deadline. We inherited that backlog and are trying to correct the delay as quickly as possible."

On 6 August, military leaders overthrew President Sidi Mohammed Cheikh Ould Abdallahi, and arrested the former ANAIR director, replacing him with Ba.

Ba said returnees should have their papers by no later than the end of the year.

But UNHCR head of repatriation in Nouakchott, Angele Djohossou, said everything has been in place for the returnees to get their papers without any additional delay. "Before someone crosses over into Mauritania, their file has already been approved by the government, which has checked to make sure the refugees are from where they say they are. Upon their arrival, UNHCR gathers their information, checked against the pre-approved list, to verify they are in the country."

Other delays

Village chief Sow told IRIN school-aged children at his camp do not have a classroom, even though a pile of concrete sits nearby his tent. "We have construction materials to build a classroom, but no teacher," said Sow. (Mauritanian students turning back to Senegal)

National reinsertionagency director Ba told IRIN eight teachers trained in Nouakchott have been sent to Brakna to work with repatriated youth. "We will send out more as needed, but there is no reason any sites would not have classrooms." He told IRIN he was not aware Boyingel Thille did not yet have a classroom.

Next steps

More than 5,000 additional Mauritanian refugees have been approved for repatriation and are expected to return by the end of 2008.

While most donors have pledged to continue humanitarian assistance in Mauritania after the August coup, some donors, including the World Bank and European Commission, have frozen development aid while the military remains in power.

One high-ranking Western diplomat in Nouakchott said donors are wary of giving money to the state's ANAIR. "When there has been erosion in internal controls, as has happened since the coup, we are less likely to give to ANAIR. But we are willing to give to the UN."

UNHCR-escorted repatriation is scheduled to end June 2009, with all UN repatriation assistance in Mauritania expected to end by December 2009. The UN recently launched an appeal for $19 million to complete the repatriation.

Repatriation director Djohossou said the UN's mandate is limited. "Rehabilitation and reconstruction is up to the government; that is not in our [UNHCR] mandate. Beyond repatriation and some reintegration, UNHCR cannot solve all development problems."

ANAIR's Ba said he knows the accelerated return of refugees will only increase the government's workload, "We do not want to let problems pile up and are working to address longstanding decades-old issues, like restoring returnees' citizenship, property, and jobs. They have lost so much. More importantly, we must restore their dignity ? starting with citizenship identification."

pt/np