BUJUMBURA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- More than 600 police officers and 28 soldiers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who had sought refuge in Burundi in recent days were repatriated Monday night, Burundian authorities told local media on Tuesday.

"612 police officers who had crossed to Burundi via the official border post of Gatumba, Mutimbuzi District in Bujumbura Province, and 28 soldiers who had entered Burundi via Cibitoke Province were repatriated yesterday evening," said Pierre Nkurikiye, spokesman for the Burundian Ministry of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security.

He noted that all the police officers and soldiers returned home "voluntarily" and were welcomed back to the DRC by the vice-governor of South Kivu Province at the Gatumba border post.

According to Nkurikiye, at least 100 Congolese asylum seekers are repatriated every day.

He added that the identification of those DRC asylum seekers is underway in an effort to relocate them to refugee camps far from the border of their country, in compliance with international conventions. Enditem

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