Some 19,000 returnees are stranded in Renk “in very difficult situation” because they came with huge amounts of luggage and there is no money to transport it to their homelands.
The revelation was made by Toby Lanzer, UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan, on Thursday.He said the returnees are on a dilemma: they can settle in Renk with their luggage or sell it and travel to their final destinations.
Mr Lanzer explained that the transport of returnees still in the Sudan has to be well planned so that they do not get stuck half way home.
Relief and Rehabilitation chief Peter Lam Both said although the numbers of returnees remain constant in Renk, there is a huge movement of people who leave for their final destinations and others who arrive by road from the Sudan.
He said IOM, the International Organization from Migration, was organizing the transport for 5,000 returnees from Renk by barge.
Mr Lam said a number of returnees want to remain in Renk and it is their constitutional right.
He appealed to the Renk County Commissioner and the Governor of Upper Nile to distribute land to those who want to settle there to cultivate.
Mr Lam said the hiring of a single barge costs 300 thousand dollars, almost one million pounds.
He added that 35,000 people waiting at way camps in Khartoum to be transported to South Sudan.
They were told to bring a “sizable amount of luggage.”
Mr Lam said there were about 250 thousand South Sudanese still living in the Sudan.