Angola - Migration

The past three decades in Angola have been characterized by war, with terrible effects on the Angolan population and social structure. Although fighting stopped in 1994, at the beginning of 1997 there were still an estimated 200,000 Angolan refugees in the DROC; 96,000 Angolan refugees in Zambia; 12,000 refugees in the Republic of the Congo; 1,000 refugees in Namibia; and 15,000 Angolan refugees in 15 other countries. As of May 1997, there were still 1.2 million Angolans displaced within their country as a result of the civil war. By June 1996, 74,000 Angolan refugees had returned to their country. However, with an upsurge in the fighting between May 1998 and June 1999, some 100,000 refugees fled the country once again. UNHCR's Angolan repatriation operation was suspended in September 1998. Despite internal conflict, Angola still hosted some 12,000 refugees, most from DROC, as of 2000. In that year, the net migration rate was -1.4 migrants per 1,000 population. The government views the migration levels as satisfactory.