P Beckingham, Esq
EAD
FCO
CONFIDENTIAL
JEJ 243.1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
28 JUN 1986
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
©
Hiss Chartslig
• Wsell for yo
584 в.п
CAP
British Embassy
Sana'a
21/ü
29 June 1986
Dear Peter.
DJIBOUTI:
1.
THE REFUGEE SITUATION
I called yesterday on Mr Edongo, the Togolese in charge of the UNHCR office in Djibouti. He gave me a clear and useful rundown on the refugee situation.
2. At present there are about 18000 refugees in Djibouti (after the repatriation of 20000 late in 1984). These are distributed as follows:
13000 2000 3000
Dikhil
Ali Sabieh Djibouti Ville
During 1985 about 1000 new refugees arrived from Ethiopia. Interestingly Edongo said that they had had no flood of refugees in the last few months, similar to that reported from North Somalia. He thought the explanation was that it was now very difficult for refugees either to get work in Djibouti or to obtain papers to emigrate to job opportunities elsewhere.
3.
The UNHCR provided food, tents, household utensils, medical and educational care and some agricultural assistance. They also gave some assistance to the Djibouti organisation responsible for helping refugees and drought victims (ONARS
-
Organisation Nationale pour Assistance aux Refugiés et Sinistrės). Their budget for 1986 was $1,658,000.
4. Edongo said the Djiboutian authorities had asked UNHCR to consider transferring the refugees to the town of Obock, North of the Gulf of Tadjoura. They believed that Dikhil was too close to the frontiers and many of the refugees were nipping across to Ethiopia. In addition, relief goods and supplies were being sold in Diredawa. In January a UNHCR team had examined the Obock site and concluded that while it was viable it offered very little possibility for local integration or agricultural self sufficiency. Only about 300 jobs would become available in farming and fishing and it would cost about $16,000 per head to achieve this result.
CONFIDENTIAL
/Water
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