DJIBOUTI: UN AGENCY STRUGGLES TO MANAGE THOUSANDS OF ASYLUM SEEKERS
New York, Sep 2 2003 12:00PM

The government in Djibouti has extended the deadline for the departure of
illegal immigrants from the East African country, where the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been struggling to cope with
thousands of people who thronged a transit centre in a last bid to apply
for asylum and legalize their stay.

An estimated 10,000 people, instead of the expected 4,000, turned up at a
stadium in the Djibouti capital, Djibouti, where they had been asked to
gather ahead of their transfer to a transit centre at Aour-Aoussa, some 120
km away.

"By Saturday, the stadium was teeming with illegal immigrants mixed with
asylum seekers, the former anxious to find ways of legalizing their stay in
Djibouti ahead of the 31 August deadline for their departure from
Djibouti," UNHCR spokesman Rupert Coleville said in Geneva today.

The large turnout at the stadium on quickly outstripped the vehicle
capacity arranged by UNHCR, forcing the government to provide additional
trucks to transport the waiting crowds at the stadium to the transit centre.

"All activities at the transit centre were completely paralysed by the
unruly mobs at the centre. Neither registration of genuine asylum seekers
nor food distribution could be started over the weekend," Mr. Coleville said.

Government officials have since deployed military personnel to man the
perimeter of the transit centre and police to instil order inside the facility.

UNHCR staff, working with Djibouti government officials, yesterday begun to
separate the large crowds of people into three distinct groups: asylum
seekers with or without attestations, Somalis from areas south of the
Somali capital, Mogadishu and others who are likely to include villagers
from the local community.

UN News Service

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