| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
PRESS RELEASE
VOLUNTARY REPATRIATION TO LIBERIA:MORE REFUGEES RETURN HOME
Some 9,000 Liberian refugees from camps in Forecariah, NzÈrÈkorÈ and GuÈckedou in Guinea have voluntarily returned home with UNHCR assistance since July 1997.The return movement will intensify now that the rainy season is over in Liberia and roads become more passable.Further, in Guinea,Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana some 28,000 Liberian refugees have registered to repatriate voluntarily and logistics plans have been finalised to expedite their departure during the first week of December. UNHCR believes that many more Liberian refugees have returned home spontaneously over the past three months.
These movements have occurred,amongst other things, as a result of the successful completion of the presidential and parliamentary elections, the improvement inthe security situation and positive steps taken both by the Liberian Government and the international community, through UNHCR, to assist the refugees return in safety and dignity.A Declaration on the Rights and Security of Returnees was recently proclaimed by President Taylor.Senior officials of the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC), the government department responsible for the co-ordination of the repatriation and reintegration programmes, are currently on a sensitisation campaign mission in the asylum countries. They have already visited Ghana, are in Cote d'Ivoire this week and will travel to Guinea next week.Inside Liberia, UNHCR is stepping up its reintegration efforts and field offices have been opened in Voinjama in Lofa county andGbarnga in Bong county.Similar progressive moves in Vahun (Lofa county) and Harper (Maryland county) are continuing albeit constraints in terms of road accessibility.UNHCR staff in these offices will be monitoring the voluntary return of refugees as well as their reintegration.
The UNHCR repatriation programme, costed at some 54 million USD and scheduled to be completed in December 1998,concerns nearly480,000 refugees who are in Guinea (235,000), Cote d'Ivoire (210,000), Ghana (15,000), Sierra Leone (14,000) and Nigeria (6,000).They sought asylum in these countries in 1989 when the civil war started in Liberia.Until this year, repeated efforts to repatriate them were aborted as a result of the resumption of fighting between various factions.
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For further information contact Khassim Diagne, Operations
Management Team (Abidjan), 428191/053848 or Paul Stromberg,
Public Information Section (Geneva), 41227398731
[The material contained in this communication comes to you via IRIN West Africa, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. UN IRIN-WA Tel: +225 21 73 66 Fax: +225 21 63 35 e-mail: irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci for more information or subscription. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this report, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. IRIN reports are archived on the Web at: http://www.reliefweb.int/emergenc or can be retrieved automatically by sending e-mail to archive@dha.unon.org . Mailing list: irin-wa-extra]
Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19971124171632.00c651c8@africaonline.co.ci> Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 17:16:32 +0000 From: UN IRIN - West Africa <irin-wa@africaonline.co.ci> Subject: Liberia: UNHCR press release on voluntary repatriation 97.11.24
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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