UNHRC service is enlisted in repatriation process

The SA government announced that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would be requested to help in repatriating about 40,000 political exiles to South Africa from countries with which Pretoria did not have diplomatic relations. On 7 March, the first batch of the African National Congress (ANC) exiles returned home from Zambia on a plane, while 550 more were expected in the following weeks. Government sources also revealed that they received 6000 applications of exiles who wanted to return. References: Keesing's Record of World Events, News Digest for March 1991, p. 38087.