UNHCR, APRIL 2023 REFUGEES FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION been accommodated in camps, but the camps were forcibly dismantled in 1996, and the refugees dispersed both to urban areas and to very remote rural districts. Socio-economic conditions for these refugees are very poor; with the precariousness of refugee status added to conflict-related poverty endemic in eastern Congo. In practice, it can be difficult to distinguish between Rwandan refugees and speakers of Kinyarwanda living in eastern Congo who are in principle Congolese nationals. In 2009, UNHCR launched a Comprehensive Solutions Strategy (CSS) for Rwandan refugees (in DRC or other countries) who had fled Rwanda between 1959 and 31 December 1998. The strategy had four main components: voluntary repatriation, local integration, refugee status determination (exemption) for those still in need of international protection, and the cessation of refugee status. In 2011, UNHCR formally recommended that the ceased circumstances clause of the UN refugee convention be applied to Rwandan refugees with effect from the end of June 2013. 91 The deadline for the cessation of refugee status was 31 December 2017. However, a number of countries within the ICGLR have decided not to apply the ceased circumstances clause to Rwandan refugees, and maintain their registration as refugees.92 Following the announcement of the CSS in 2009, UNHCR and the governments of Rwanda and the DRC negotiated and signed tripartite agreements in February 2010 for the voluntary repatriation of refugees from Rwanda and from Congo to their countries of origin.93 In 2019, the government pledged to provide a ten-year residence permit to 200,000 Rwandan refugees who have stayed in DRC. 94 However, the DRC has not invoked the ceased circumstances cessation clause for Rwandan refugees, considering it first require a full re-registration of Rwandan refugees present in the country. In 2014, the National Commission for Refugees (Commission nationale pour les refugiés, CNR) reported that there were 215,942 refugees of Rwandan origin in DRC. A biometric registration exercise was undertaken jointly by the CNR and UNHCR to verify the figures, and 76,076 refugees of Rwandan origin were registered in the period 2015-2018. The process was, however, challenged by the insecurity in North and South Kivu provinces, meaning that some districts of North Kivu could not be reached. Among those registered in this process, two-thirds had been born in the DRC (more than 99 percent of the childre n and almost 30 percent of the adults), and around half had been present for more than 20 years in DRC.95 In DRC, focus groups were conducted in South Kivu with refugees in the town of Bukavu, the provincial capital, and in the district of Kalehe. In North Kivu, they were conducted in the mining area of Rubaya, in Masisi, and in Nyiragongo. The survey sample was 353. 91 “Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Rwandan Refugee Situation, including UNHCR's recommendations on the Applicability of the ‘ceased circumstances' Cessation Clauses", UNHCR, 31 December 2011. https://www.refworld.org/docid/4f33a1642.html 92 ‘Operational Update: Rwanda’ UNHCR, 1 January 2018 https://www.unhcr.org/rw/wp content/uploads/sites/4/2018/01/UNHCR-Rwanda-Monthly-Factsheet-December-2017.pdf. 93 ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’, https://www.refworld.org/docid/4e5237951f.html. UNHCR Global Report 2010, June 2011, 94 Pledges made at the Global Refugee Forum; see Excel spreadsheet available at https://globalcompactrefugees.org/channel/pledges-contributions (“La RDC offre aux 200.000 réfugiés rwandais qui ont opté de demeurer en RDC après la clause de cessation de leur statut, un permis de séjours d'une validité de 10 ans”). 95 Final Report on the 2018 Registration Operation for Rwandan Refugees: The Kivus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNHCR, March 2019 https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/68487 ; see also Democratic Republic of the Congo: Rwandan Refugees in DRC - Refugees Biometrically Registered as of 31 May 2021, UNHCR, 28 June 2021 https://reliefweb.int/map/democratic-republic-congo/democratic-republic-congo-rwandan-refugees-drcrefugees-biometrically. 39