According to UNHCR, the respective Tuesday and Wednesday groups comprised of 45 and 35 refugees while on May 4 another group of 32 refugees left Malawi for the US.

"The resettlement of these refugees has been made possible with the cooperation of UNHCR, the resettlement country (U.S.), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Malawi government," UNHCR representative, Abel Mbilinyi told Xinhua Wednesday at the Kamuzu International Airport upon the departure of the 35 refugees.

UNHCR resettlement expert Kizitos Okisai* further told Xinhua in an interview that in the United States, the resettled refugees will undergo a particular process before they are entirely free to fend for themselves.

"The refugees will be welcomed by special agencies in the US and within six months their (refugees) level of expertise in various fields will be assessed and thereafter, they will be allowed to ply the job market to earn a living," Okisai told Xinhua.

On citizenship the UNHCR resettlement expert said the refugees will remain "landed migrants for five years of clean record before they are full citizens upon the US authority’s certification."

One of the refugees Kamanda Sadiki Mulera, 17, of Democratic Republic of Congo told Xinhua in an interview before departure that he was excited beyond words.

"This is a very exciting moment of my life and I am happy to leave the camp at last. I hope life in the U.S. will be much better.

"I hope to further my education in the US and come back and help develop Africa," said Mulera who was travelling to the U. S. together with his mother and siblings.

Malawi is currently hosting 11,000 refugees and asylum seekers from the Great Lakes and the Horn of Africa countries.

Resettlement is one of three durable solutions UNHCR seeks for refugees.

According to information sourced from UNHCR, in 2009 alone 227 refugees left Malawi to Australia, Canada, US, Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands.

According to UNHCR representative, the organization hopes to resettle 300 refugees in the year 2010.

The other two durable solutions for refugees are voluntary repatriation and local integration.

The UNHCR representative further urged Malawi government to consider local integration of the refugees who are willing to.

"I would like to appeal to the Malawi government to open doors for those who would like to stay in Malawi and call it home, " said Mbilinyi.

*ICMC-UNHCR Resettlement Deployee, Kizitos Okisai, has been instrumental in assessing and referring refugees for resettlement to the United States.  Okisai has supported the work of UNHCR Malawi since 2009, when he was first deployed to the field through the ICMC-UNHCR Deployment Scheme<.