UN Refugee agency helps speed up repatriation of Liberians in Nigeria

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is helping to accelerate the repatriation of thousands of Liberian refugees who the fled Liberia the during the 14-year civil conflict.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is helping to accelerate the repatriation of thousands of Liberian refugees who their country the during its 14-year civil conflict.

As part of the effort, UNHCR also took part in the first meeting of the Tripartite Commission meeting last week in Monrovia with the Governments of Liberia and Nigeria aimed at dealing with issues observed during the implementation of repatriation activity since Liberian refugees in Nigeria first started going home.

“This Tripartite forum definitely offers an excellent opportunity for both governments to exchange views and discuss ways to accelerate the repatriation process and come up with recommendations to meet the challenges facing the repatriation exercises” said UNHCR Representative Mengesha Kebede at the opening program in Monrovia on Thursday. “UNHCR will continue to plays it role,” he added.

The Tripartite Agreements signed in June 2005 between representatives of the Governments of Nigeria, Liberia and UNHCR in Abuja, Nigeria, spell out, among other things, the rights of Liberian refugees to freely choose to repatriate and the modalities of the repatriation movement, such as immigration procedures.

Since the launch of the UNHCR repatriation exercise, 976 of the 6,000 Liberian refugees in Nigeria have been assisted to go home mainly by commercial flights.