Kampala , Uganda ( CNN ) -- Three days after at least 108 passengers -- most of them Congolese refugees -- died when their overloaded boat capsized on Lake Albert , the Ugandan government wants to find a safe way to send the survivors home . `` To avoid more accidents due ( to ) violations of safety rules , we are stepping up efforts to ensure orderly repatriation of refugees wishing to return to their countries , '' said Hillary Onek , Uganda minister for relief , disaster preparedness and refugees . Officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the United Nations refugee agency will meet April 14 to work out details for the refugees ' return , he said . At least 45 people were rescued . Meanwhile , police were continuing Tuesday to scour the waters for more bodies , though there was little expectation that further survivors would be found . Overloaded boats are a common cause of death on Lake Albert and across the lakes of the Albertine Rift region . Ugandan police spokesman Patrick Onyango said Saturday that the refugees had left from the Kyangwali settlement camp in Hoima district . `` They were leaving the camp to get back to their country , and it is the cheapest transport for them , '' he said . Over the past decade , rebellions against the Joseph Kabila-led administration had led tens of thousands of people to flee to Uganda , where about half of the nearly 400,000 refugees are Congolese . The capsizing occurred as the boat was returning to DRC after U.N. forces there had dislodged a number of rebel groups from Ituri , an interim province in northeastern DRC . Saturday 's victims were among an increasing number of refugees who , in response to assurances from cultural leaders and humanitarian agencies that they would be safe , have chosen to return , according to officials from Uganda , DRC and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees . `` The accident was as a result of one of ( those ) spontaneous returns , '' Onek said . `` It is in response to campaigns , mainly by King Bamukoka Swambili Kamango of the Batalinga tribe in eastern DRC , calling on his subjects to return home because peace had been returned '' to their country of origin . The king had said that humanitarian agencies were poised to provide the returnees with settlement help , Onek said . `` In the meantime , we are sensitizing the Congolese refugees about the dangers of escaping from settlements without notifying their host authorities , '' he added . Most of the bodies have been claimed by relatives and taken to DRC for burial ; those unclaimed will be buried in marked areas for future claimants , Onek said .
`` We are stepping up efforts to ensure orderly repatriation of refugees , '' says Ugandan minister . The UN refugee agency said it was working with the government and other agencies on a plan for resettling some 20,000 people in Uganda by year's end. Most of its passengers were Congolese refugees .