Repatriations by year end: Report

THE first phase of the repatriation of West Papuans from Papua New Guinea is scheduled to begin by the end of this year, after all the facilities are ready, Indonesian news website Kompas.com reported at the weekend from Jayapura.
“I think this year will see the start of the repatriation, because the project had been delayed several times since 2006,” Papua governor Barnabas Suebu said last Thursday.
Mr Suebu said he had also established coordination with all the regents in West Papua in preparing the facilities for the West Papuans from PNG, because they would be sent back to their hometowns. 
In answer to a question, he also said that the repatriation would be carried out both by land and air.
“The process by land will go through Wutung in the Indonesia-PNG border.”
While 708 Papuans will be repatriated, 2,000 to 3,000 of them would still be in PNG, but all of them had already registered themselves for the repatriation. 
“The repatriation expenses will be taken from the (West) Papua provincial budget and from the (Indonesian) central government,” the governor said. – www.kompas.com