SIERRA LEONE: Liberian refugees relocated

U N I T E D N A T I O N S
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)

SIERRA LEONE: Liberian refugees relocated

ABIDJAN, 2 May (IRIN) - The number of Liberian refugees presenting
themselves for relocation within Sierra Leone has increased recently
following a mass information campaign by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency,
reported on Wednesday.

Last week alone, UNHCR said, it relocated 1,400 Liberians from Kailahun
District in eastern Sierra Leone to camps in Bo District in the south of the
country. This number represented a sharp rise jump from the previous count
of between 400 and 800 per week, the UN agency added.

The campaign informed refugees of the dangers of staying near the border
with Liberia and of help available to them in one of UNHCR's four camps used
for hosting Liberian refugees in the interior of Sierra Leone. A lack of
food and the pending rainy season also encouraged Liberians to move from
makeshift camps along the border, UNHCR added.

Of the estimated 7,000 non-registered Liberian refugees still in the
Kailahun area, about 70 percent were ready to relocate, UNHCR said.
However, it added, in Pujehun District in southern Sierra Leone, less than
half of some 3,000 spontaneously settled Liberians say they want to go to a
camp. Some have good connections with the local population while others want
to stay near the border to cultivate their fields in Liberia.

UNHCR has aided nearly 14,000 Liberian refugees since the emergency
relocation programme began in Sierra Leone in late December 2001. The
refugees were fleeing fighting between Liberian government troops and armed
dissidents.

Refugees International, a Washington-based advocacy organisation, said on
Monday that the plight of Liberian refugees in Sierra Leone required an
"urgent response" from the international community.

More than 250,000 Liberians sought refuge in west and central African
countries when the Liberian civil war broke out in 1989. Factions involved
in the war officially disbanded in early 1997 and Charles Taylor, a former
warlord, was elected president later the same year. However Taylor's
government, since 1998, has faced renewed hostilities from a dissident
group, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy.

[ENDS]

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