Timor: 200 repatriated to Dili

UNHCR today repatriated more than 200 East Timorese refugees from Kupang back to Dili on the IOM-chartered vessel Patricia Anne Hotung. This is the fourth UNHCR/IOM organized return movement from Kupang to East Timor since September, when aid agencies withdrew from West Timor following the murder of the three UNHCR aid workers in Atambua on 6 September. Total returns this month have been more than 1,500 people. More than 3,500 East Timorese have repatriated so far this year, and the total number of returns since October 1999 is more than 178,000. An estimated 100,000 East Timorese refugees remain in Indonesia.