Liberia: UN refugee agency steps up activities as thousands return home on their own

The United Nations refugee agency is stepping up its activities in Liberia as thousands of people return home on their own, buoyed by hopes that the widening deployment of UN peacekeeping troops will finally bring peace to their war-shattered land.

Yesterday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started daily transport from the Bo Waterside border with Sierra Leone to help move new arrivals to Monrovia, the Liberian capital, where they can receive assistance. Some returnees, who started arriving on their own in December, had been stuck there because they had no money to continue their journey.

"We are concerned about these spontaneous returnees because they are coming back to a state of continued displacement," UNHCR Representative in Liberia Moses Okello said. "While the return of Liberians to their country is a good sign of confidence in the peace process, they are doing so prematurely and are ending up in camps for the displaced."

Eventually, UNHCR plans to facilitate the return and reintegration of 320,000 Liberian refugees in the region, as well as 500,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), including some 300,000 who are now being assisted in IDP camps around the country.

While security has generally improved with the expanded deployment of troops from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) following last August’s ceasefire agreement between government and rebel forces, some areas are still tense and prone to sporadic skirmishes.

Still, UNHCR expects many more refugees to return on their own this year and in the run-up to the presidential elections scheduled in late 2005. So far, the agency has registered 3,000 returnees in an ongoing exercise in Monrovia. They are being housed in Perrytown on the city's outskirts. Some are living in a transit centre while UNHCR builds more shelters for them. Upon registration, they receive relief items and food from the UN World Food Programme (WFP).