As up to 800 additional refugees prepare to return home to Mauritania from Senegal this week, some of them told IRIN they were confident about the future given the warm welcome their fellow returnees have been given.

“I know I won’t get back everything I’ve lost, but I have confidence [in returning],” said Hamadi Galla Diallo, a livestock farmer, who was deported in 1989 from a site 3 km from the town of Rosso on the Senegal border.

In 1989 up to 70,000 black African Mauritanians were expelled by the Arab-dominated government. 19 years later 24,000 remain in Senegal and 6,000 in Mali. 

Repatriating them is one of the Mauritanian government’s priorities for 2008. It worked with the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to initiate the return process on 29 January, and since then, 360 have arrived home, with a further 438 expected on 18 March.

The returns will escalate to a predicted rate of 3,000 people a month, according to Didier Laye, UNHCR’s Mauritania representative.

Thus far, fears that returns would fuel ethnic tensions and conflicts over jobs have not yet been realised, according to villagers who spoke to IRIN.

Refugee and human rights organisations put out several press releases in February stating concerns about poor conditions in welcome sites. But in the last two weeks they changed their tune.

“At the beginning of the first wave of returns, we were sceptical because a number of issues had not been clarified by UNHCR,” said Mamadou Wane, the spokesman for the Steering Committee of the community of Mauritanian refugees in Senegal.

“Fortunately we feel some things are being corrected, and that is why today we support the work that is being done.”

Housing and land

Local authorities are giving housing permits and construction authorisation forms to refugees who want to be reinstated in their old villages.

"We propose that each returnee family builds a new house," said Laye. “We give them material and technical support to build the first cement block, and a latrine. We can also support those who want to live in straw or mud houses – the refugees can choose.”

But when it comes to compensating the farmland they lost almost 30 years ago, the situation is more complicated.

“There is no problem at the housing level,” said Sidi Sow, prefect of Rosso. “[But] when it comes to returning farmland, we have to negotiate. An investigation will be conducted when there are disputes and we will propose a number of different solutions to people who are occupying lands that are not their own, just as some of the refugees will [have to] resettle in different areas than those they lived in 19 years ago.”

Nevertheless, Diallo has high hopes of getting his land back. "I was told we were going to recover our old property and land, but I don’t know how we will be compensated. I’m not worried though, I think the authorities are acting in good faith,” Diallo said as he waited for the ferry that will send him, his wife and five children to Mauritania.

Jobs

When it comes to work the future is also uncertain. The national agency to welcome and rehabilitate refugees, L’ANAIR, is supporting youths and women with small loans to help them generate income. But such loans will only go so far.

Mama Diarra Lawal, a hairdresser, 26, told IRIN. “I dream of opening up a hairdressing salon in my village of Medina Salam. But for that I’d need electricity and I don’t know if that will be possible.”

Abdallahi Kéné, a young rapper who just returned with his family, worries what will become of him in Mauritania.

"In Senegal, I entertained at parties. I do not know if I can continue that here… My father died and I had to follow my mother here… I’m a bit sad to leave Senegal because I know no one in Mauritania. I only hope to be able to continue my work.”