VZCZCXRO5561
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1577 2110750
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 300750Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8894
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 001577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL/AE AND INR/AA 
PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS PREF SG
SUBJECT: Time for the Mauritanians to go Home 
 
 
Summary 
------- 
¶1.  (SBU) In a meeting with Charge d'Affaires, the United Nations 
High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) Regional Representative, 
Rosaline Idowu, was upbeat that a large percentage of the 20,000 
Mauritanian refugees remaining in the Senegal River Valley would 
return home.  She confirmed President Wade's statement that he would 
grant those that choose to stay Senegalese citizenship.  She also 
emphasized that regionally the refugee situation had improved vastly 
and that as a result of reduced caseloads her regional office in 
Dakar would increase the number of countries that it oversees. End 
Summary 
 
¶2. (SBU) Currently, there are some 20,000 Mauritanian refugees 
living in villages scattered across Senegal's northern border.  Many 
of them have been there since 1989 and have refused to return unless 
the Mauritanian government could guarantee them return of the 
citizenship status which many lost after they were expelled by the 
then-ruling Junta.  After winning the election, the new Mauritanian 
President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi pledged that this issue 
would be a top priority for his government and on June 29 he asked 
UNHCR for assistance in repatriating them.  As of now UNHCR has 
prepared a tripartite agreement which it hopes the governments of 
Senegal and Mauritania will sign in September.  The repatriation 
would then begin after the end of Ramadan.  Idowu expects that it 
will take at most a year.  On the Mauritanian side, the local UNHCR 
office will assist the returnees for a period of 18 months to 
include assistance with housing, schooling and employment.  She 
optimistically expects about 14,000 to return with the remaining 
6,000 staying in Senegal.  Those remaining behind will do so because 
they have either married locally or found a niche which they do not 
want to leave. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Regionally, Idowu has seen the refugee caseload drop 
significantly with the return of Sierra Leonean and Liberian 
refugees to their home countries.  She is also working with ECOWAS 
to amend their charter to allow refugees who do not want to return 
the right to stay and work via the issuance of a three year 
residency/work visa.  Under the ECOWAS's charter, citizens of member 
countries have freedom of movement and can set up business within 
the ECOWAS zone.  As a result of this diminishing caseload, UNHCR's 
Dakar office will be responsible for ten countries by 2008, and 14 
by 2009. 
Smith