Refugee repatriation and reintegration in Guatemala: Lessons learned from UNHCR’s experience

In 1999, the last of the 50,000 Guatemalans who had become refugees in Mexico as a result of the conflict in their country of origin were able to benefit from a durable solution. Throughout their years of exile and during the process of return and reintegration, UNHCR and other international agencies played an important part in their lives.

With UNHCR’s operational role in Guatemala nearly at an end, and memories of the operation still fresh, it was considered opportune to bring together some of the key personalities and organizations involved in order to examine the experience and derive lessons – both positive and negative – that could inform the planning of future repatriation and reintegration programmes.