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Refugees in W. Timor since 1999 return home
A team of volunteers has helped to repatriate 69 East Timorese who have been taking refuge in Belu regency, West Timor, since 1999
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team of volunteers has helped to repatriate 69 East Timorese who have been taking refuge in Belu regency, West Timor, since 1999.
The refugees from Covalima district, East Timor, left Belu’s capital Atambua on Monday on dozens of trucks bound for the Motamasin border to the south.
The 24 refugee families decided to return to East Timor because they missed their families back home and had found it difficult to find fields to cultivate in refugee centers.
“There were initially 71 people who were to return to East Timor, but one person died last Friday at the Raihenek refugee camp in Belu,” the coordinator for the Centre for IDP Services (CIS) Timor, Anato Bonito Moreira, said.
The repatriation included the largest number of people in the last six years. Most refugees who decided to return to East Timor did so with the hopes of better access to education, health care and money, he said.
“Other factors include the conduciveness of the political situation in the former province of Indonesia,” he said.
The volunteers, from local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), hailed from West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara and East Timor.
They came from the East Timor-based Grupu Servisu Fila Hikas Knua, Timor Lorosae People’s Solidarity Forum (Fortilos), Igreja Protestante Timor-Leste, Ita ba Paz, Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS), Provedoria dos Direitos Humanos e Justica, Sagrada Corazao de Jesus and The Frontiers.
Participating West Timor-based organizations were the Centre for IDP Services (CIS) Timor and the Atambua Women and Children’s Forum.
Nug Katjasungkana of Grupu Servisu Fila Hikas Knua said all the refugees had completed the documentation required by the Indonesian authorities.
“After being handed over to the East Timorese authorities, they will travel to their villages,” he said.
Most of the returnees brought household items along with them.
Wilem Taek, 51, brought with him 40 sheets of roofing zinc, 40 sheets of wall material, 20 wooden pillars, a bag of cloth, kitchenware, three sacks of corn and gardening tools.
