Reintegrating Returnees in Post-War Liberia
Elma Shaw discusses how refugees are being reintegrated into Liberias societal fabric.
What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?
What makes refugees decide to return to a home they left in shambles? What are the challenges to becoming adjusted and reintegrated into a society after years of absence? How are refugees being reintegrated in post-war Liberia?
It is early July, 2007, and at Roberts International Airport a team from LRRRC, UNHCR, Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), and GTZ (German Technical Assistance) is waiting to receive a group of Liberian refugees returning from Ghana. The lady from NRC is wearing a T-shirt with the map of Liberia on the front, and the words Theres No Place Like Home. I am there with Nancy Garley, herself a returnee (Yomou Refugee Camp, Guinea, 1990-1999) who now works as a Repatriation Monitor at LRRRC, the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission.
This airport mission is significant because June 30th was the deadline for refugees in the West African sub-region to sign up for Voluntary Repatriation to their home countries. The returnees we came to meet are among the last that will be transported back home with assistance from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. All of them will be given enough bulgur wheat and split peas for four months, non-food items such as blankets, buckets and cooking pots, and a small amount of money to help them get to their final destination.
Voluntary Repatriation began in October 2004, and UNHCR statistics show that as of June 30, 2007, a total of 108,198 refugees have been repatriated with assistance. 51,237 came from Guinea; 28,701 from Sierra Leone; 19,907 from the Cte dIvoire; 5,906 from Ghana; 2,136 from Nigeria; and 311 from other countries. These asylum countries have recorded, during the same period, 50,032 spontaneous, unassisted departures.
The returnees soon file out of the Kenya Airways plane clutching the clear plastic folders that hold their Voluntary Repatriation Forms. This formthe VRFserved as a passport, and will continue to be used as official identification for several more months if they wish to apply for further assistance from UNHCR and its partners.
The 55 returnees at Roberts International Airport today consist of 16 women, 20 children, and 19 young men in their teens and 20s. They are separated from the other passengers, whisked through Customs, and led outside where they will board a large truck for the drive to the Transit Center. I ask Eunice Lloyd, a returnee who spent six years between Nigeria and Ghana, about her first impression. I dont see any armed civilians walking among us, she says with a smile. Im very happy about that. So far, so good!
At the Transit Center, a 30-minute drive from the airport, the returnees gather in a large room where they are officially welcomed by Saah Fayiah of UNHCR. Hanging from the ceiling behind him are encouraging signs. Among them:
LIBERIA CAN ONLY BE BUILT BY LIBERIANS THEMSELVES
UNITED WE STAND, DIVIDED WE FALL. ITS TIME TO COME BACK HOME TO REBUILD OUR MOTHERLAND LIBERIA
RECONCILIATION IS THE BEST WAY TO NATION-BUILDING
While Saah tells them about the procedure to be followed at the Center, someone passes around large bottles of Blue Lake mineral water bottled right here in Tubmanburg, Bomi County. I can see the surprise in some of the faces as they read the label that displays the Liberian flag, and I am so proudof Blue Lake and of the brave returnees and of the welcome team for giving out our own waterthat my eyes suddenly fill with tears. The returnees get their first Liberian meal, and then go through the routine: screening by the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation, medical screening, cash payment of transportation, pick-up of non-food items, and pick-up of food rations.
For urban-based returnees (i.e. returnees who will live in Monrovia, Montserrado County) there are a number of opportunities available through Education and Economic Recovery programs. The Monrovia Vocational Training Center, for example, offers masonry, carpentry, electronics, tailoring and other courses. LOIC, the Liberia Opportunities Industrialisation Center, provides computer training, as does many other vocational schools. UNHCR, in the Economc Recovery and Reintegration Sector, awards small business grants ranging from $100 to $500 to applicants who have skills and good business plans. Returnees who qualify for this extra assistance are able to adjust and reintegrate quite quickly, while those who come with no skills, or who resettle in other counties, sometimes find it more difficult.
Richard Johnson is a success story. He stayed in Liberia throughout the battles of the1990s, but when renewed fighting reached Monrovia in 2003 and he lost his car to the rebels, he decided he did not want to experience any more trauma. He gave away the simple metal file he used to cut keys in his small key duplicating shop, and was one of the few lucky Liberians allowed to leave on a plane that had come to evacuate Ghanaian citizens.
While Richard was at the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana, he got a job with a metalcraft company in Accra. There he learned how to use a machine to cut keys, and how to melt brass to make new keys. Richard decided to return home after he saw President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Ghanaian television saying the war was over and Liberians should come home to help rebuild the country. He signed up for voluntary repatriation and came home on a ship, along with returnees from Nigeria, in April 2006.
When Richard got home he applied to UNHCR for a small business grant. He had bought a key-cutting machine in Ghana, but had no shop to work from, and no generator to run the machine. He received a $500 grant from UNHCR to help him start over. With it he got a small generator and was able to rent shop space at $40/month. Two Keys are Better than One is located on Newport Street, opposite the Duncan Alley gas station. Richard says he needs to make more people aware of his little shop, and will eventually melt brass and produce his own keys.
On 18th Street and Cheesman Avenue in Sinkor, Margaretta Guanue-Donkeh is another example of successful reintegration. Margarettas situation was a little different from most refugees. She and a younger sister started off living in Accra with their older brother, who was doing well with an import-export business. It was not until the business suffered at the hands of a dishonest partner that things became a little difficult.
During her 10 years as a refugee in Accra, Margaretta studied computer software and engineering, while her sister learned sewing. When her sister died, Margaretta took up sewing as a way to keep the girls dream alive. She signed up for lessons at Ghanas well-known KALBS school of fashion, and after a while, because of her talent and her business acumen, she was asked to work there as a manager as well. But what Margaretta wanted to do most was finish school. She had left Liberia during her junior year studying Economics at the University of Liberia. Although Ghana assisted Liberian refugees in many ways, Margaretta was not allowed to transfer credits to a Ghanaian university. Her desire to complete her degree was one factor in her decision to return home. Another was the death of her father. Her mother needed her at home. What finally prompted her to come back though, was the new government. Enthusiasm was in the air and we had a lot of hope for a better future, Margaretta says. She was confident that with her sewing skills she could work to support herself and not have to rely on anyone. Friends said it would be tough, she adds, but I told them people can make any situation better.
Upon arrival in Monrovia, Margaretta began working out of her mothers home, but business wasnt going too well and she knew she needed more visibility. With a grant from UNHCR, she built a small tailoring shop in her mothers front yard and called it Workmans Fashion from a Bible verse in II Timothy. Business improved immediately, and she now wants to buy another machine and hire an experienced tailor to help with the increased workload. In the meantime, Margaretta is giving back and contributing to national development by training two women in the skills of tailoring.
The assistance given to both Richard and Margaretta has helped them become fully reintegrated, and, through their work, is helping to revitalise the national economy. Computer trainees like Vivian Franklin, who spent nine years in Ghana, and Augustine Pardea, who was in Sierra Leone and Guinea from 1990 to 2007, also feel like they are accomplishing something and will be able to contribute to nation-building activities upon graduation. But what is being done about the non-skilled returnees who dont qualify for training or for grants, and those who choose to return to rural areas?
According to LRRRCs Reintegration Officer, Nehemiah Gbaba, NRC helps build shelters for vulnerable returnees (the elderly and handicapped) to Bomi County, while other humanitarian partners provide community-based assistance in both urban and rural areas of return. This assistance includes school renovations, construction of hand pumps (covered wells) and latrines, and, in Lofa County, rehabilitation of roads by UNHCR. The projects help the entire community, rather than only the individual returnees. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) also plays a major role in community-based assistance by establishing and empowering District Development Councils (DDCs) to identify the development needs of the community and oversee implementation of development projects.
Registration for Voluntary Repatriation has ended, and those who signed up will all return very soon. With the exception of protection, assistance to refugees who choose to remain in countries of asylum will gradually be reduced, beginning with food rations, then medication, then education. After all, the war is over and Liberia, though not fully at peace until security and justice systems are working well, is in its reconstruction era.
* Elma Shaw writes about living in post-war Liberia, and strives to balance the scale between despair and hope. Writing with a sense of history, a bit of humour, and a sprinkle of irreverence, Shaw presents profiles & photos of people, places and current events that make Liberia truly the Lone Star of Africa.
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