Last Sierra Leonean refugees return home as UN closes repatriation programme
The last of some 280,000 refugees was repatriated to Sierra Leone from neighbouring countries today as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) closed its huge return programme for the West African nation.
The final UNHCR convoy from Liberia carrying 286 people crossed over the Mano River bridge into Sierra Leone on Wednesday. A last convoy of 329 returnees left Guinea today and will arrive in Sierra Leone tomorrow.
The agency's assisted voluntary repatriation programme was to end officially on 30 June, but because of a late surge in demand from refugees in Liberia to return home, the programme was extended to late July.
The pace of returns to Sierra Leone had picked up markedly in recent months as the refugees, mainly sheltering in neighbouring Liberia and Guinea, rushed to get home before UNHCR's repatriation programme ended.
An estimated 120,000 Sierra Leoneans fled to Liberia during their country's decade-long conflict, which ended in 2000, and 370,000 to Guinea. Some 15,000 refugees have opted to stay in their host countries and integrate locally. In the countries with larger numbers of refugees deciding to stay, UNHCR will help with integration through community-based projects.
"It is enormously encouraging to see such large numbers of refugees have returned home to Sierra Leone with a keen determination to rebuild their lives after living for nearly a decade in refugee camps in surrounding countries," High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers said.
UNHCR and its partners, alongside the UN country team and the government, will assist reintegration through various community projects - ranging from the construction of local health clinics and wells to the upgrading of schools - through the end of 2005.
The agency's field offices in Sierra Leone will remain open to assist the return of some 55,000 Liberian refugees expected to go home when UNHCR's Liberian voluntary repatriation programme gets underway in October throughout West Africa.