Deadline set for Sierra Leone repatriation process
Freetown - A United Nations-backed voluntary repatriation exercise to return Liberian refugees from Sierra Leone is winding up at the end of June, a government official said on Wednesday.
"June 30... is the end of organised voluntary repatriation of Liberian refugees to their homeland," said Sidi Bah, director of a government-funded resettlement commission, which works jointly with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
"We shall not have an organised convoy taking refugees back to Liberia after this deadline," he added.
Only 6 000 refugees are expected to stay behind out of about 54 600 who fled into the country during Liberia's civil war that ended in 2003.
Only 6 000 refugees are expected to stay behind out of about 54 600 who fled into the country during Liberia's civil war that ended in 2003.
The remaining refugees' status will be considered "on a case-by-case basis but there will be the possibility of local integration for them", he said.
Fourteen years of vicious civil war left no corner of the tiny west African country unscathed and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
At the height of the Liberian crisis, about 850 000 people were displaced by violence, the majority of whom sought asylum in neighbouring countries.
Last year about 169 000 registered Liberian refugees remained in various countries across west Africa. - Sapa-AFP
