326 refugees sent home

MANADO, North Sulawesi: Some 326 refugees in the province were sent back to their homes in Tobelo, North Maluku on Thursday.

Jeffri Prang, chief of the local social affairs office, said the repatriation of the North Maluku refugees was the second the provincial administration had conducted over the past two months.

He said the refugees were sent home because the situation in North Maluku had stabilized. They were transported by a ship chartered by the local administration.

"The repatriation of the refugees has been conducted in accordance with their cooperation and financed by the provincial administration, after coordinating with the North Maluku administration," he said here on Friday.

A total of around 300,000 people had taken refuge in the province following the outbreak of sectarian conflict in North Maluku two years ago and only a small number of them have since returned home. Most of them have been placed in hundreds of refugee camps scattered across Bitung, Manado, Minahasa, Bolaang Mongondow and Sangihe-Talaud. --Antara