SIERRA LEONE: Repatriation of refugees from Guinea completed
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week completed the repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees who had returned from Guinea to their original homes in Sierra Leone, the agency's spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva last Friday.
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SIERRA LEONE: Repatriation of refugees from Guinea completed
ABIDJAN, 12 August (IRIN) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week completed the repatriation of Sierra Leonean refugees who had returned from Guinea to their original homes in Sierra Leone, the agency's spokesman Kris Janowski said in Geneva on Friday.
A last group of 269 Sierra Leoaneans left the Barri chiefdom town of Potoru, in the country's southern Pujehun district on Wednesday and headed for their final destination in the eastern Kailahun and Kono districts.
The group had earlier returned to Sierra Leone but had temporarily been accommodated in host communities until their places of origin were safe enough to go back to. They had stayed in the host community for more than a year, Janowski said.
The agency assisted returnees in host communities close to their homes with shelter material, schooling and medical care. The host communities will be able to use some of the newly built facilities, including wells and latrines, he added.
Repatriation by sea was also continuing from Liberia with a fourth boat docking in Freetown on Monday last week, bringing to 1,222 the total number repatriated from Liberia since the beginning of the sea operation on 20 July.
Meanwhile, The United States Committee for Refugees (USCR), which has completed a month-long site visit to assess humanitarian conditions in West Africa, called for quick implementation of a US State Department recommendation to disburse several million dollars to aid Liberian refugees by tapping the government's Emergency Refugee and migration Assistance (ERMA) fund. The fund is a pool of money specially set aside to address unforeseen refugee emergencies worldwide.
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