UN's June deadline leads Sierra Leonean refugees to seek repatriation

With the deadline for the United Nations-sponsored repatriation of refugees looming, the pace of organized return home by Sierra Leoneans is picking up, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said today.

A convoy of 14 trucks carrying 353 refugees from Liberia was scheduled to arrive today, while the largest number to date - 718 people - came to the Zimmi way station in southern Sierra Leone on Friday. Another 614 arrived earlier last week. UNHCR said.

The agency has repatriated over 120,000 Sierra Leonean refugees since the decade of civil war ended in 2001, mostly from Liberia and Guinea, with 3,700 of them returning home this year alone.

Under an agreement among the members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Sierra Leonean refugees who chose to stay in Liberia can do so legally, the agency noted.