E/CN.4/2006/73/Add.2 page 13 54. It is therefore a population of working age, made up chiefly of men who in Côte d’Ivoire were employed in farming, while their wives mostly looked after the home. The occupations which are the most popular with returnees are therefore farming (50 per cent), small trade (27 per cent) or stock raising (12 per cent).14 55. As far as possible returnees who were employed in farming in Côte d’Ivoire have tried to continue doing the same type of work in Burkina Faso. Occasionally local authorities have tried to give them plots of land. For two main reasons, however, this type of measure has not provided employment for all returnees trying to return to farming: (a) the quality of land; (b) the insufficient area of plots, which are unable to supply a decent source of revenue. In some regions, moreover, one way out of the problem has been to engage in deforestation, which raises the further issues of environmental protection and the depletion of already scarce natural resources. 56. Many returnees used to be businessmen or plantation owners in Côte d’Ivoire. But despite their spirit of initiative and the means available to undertake new economic activities in Bukina Faso, these people complain of lack of support on the part of the public authorities. “The authorities have given preference to short-term activities at the expense of medium- and long-term plans. The Bayiri operation has brought people back to the villages and then has left them to fend for themselves. We are not beggars. Our plight is to be blamed on the Government of Burkina Faso”, according to the president of an association of returnees, formerly a businessman in Côte d’Ivoire. “There is no public employment policy”, he added, “the authorities are merely waiting for people to leave again”. 57. Most of the men do go back to Côte d’Ivoire in the hope of a better life, leaving their wives and children behind in Burkina Faso in view of the political and socio-economic unrest prevailing in Côte d’Ivoire. Very often they are unable to send their families who have stayed at home sufficient money for their needs, thus leaving them in conditions of extreme hardship. 58. The Bayiri operation was aimed at humanitarian assistance and socio-economic resettlement. This is the Operational Plan to support the socio-economic resettlement of returnees, which was adopted in July 2003 by the Council of Ministers of the Government of Burkina Faso. It is a three-year programme centred on the communities rather than on the returnees in order to avoid favouring some groups at the expense of others. 59. The Government has told the Special Rapporteur that it did not have sufficient support from the international community for the socio-economic resettlement programme, although this is one of its top priorities. 60. The Special Rapporteur received a number of proposals for economic resettlement projects which deserve consideration. For instance, the IOM has developed a project to assist the resettlement of returnees from Côte d’Ivoire, whose general objective is to provide backing for the Government’s Operational Plan to support the socio-economic resettlement of returnees, as well as assist 2,000 families through microprojects and income-generating activities.15