afrol News, 30 August - Almost 200,000 refugees have found a safe haven in Guinea as the wars in West Africa were at their worst, mostly from Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire. Now, almost all Sierra Leoneans have been repatriated and those few remaining will be offered Guinean citizenship. The repatriation of 73,000 Liberians is to start in October this year.

Guinea has been the West African country that hosted most refugees during the end-1990s and until now as it has been almost spared from the devastating wars in neighbouring countries. At high costs for local communities and the central government and with substantial aid from the UN's refugee agency UNHCR, most refugees were given a decent stay in Guinea during the difficult years.

The destiny of most Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea was turned when the first signs of peace appeared in their country. Between December 2000 and July this year, a total of 92,944 refugees went back to Sierra Leone from Guinea under UNHCR's voluntary repatriation programme.

According to the UN agency, this programme officially ended on 30 June, but groups of Sierra Leonean refugees approached the agency for return assistance after the deadline, with the last convoy leaving Guinea on 22 July. Thousands more have however stayed behind, unable or unwilling to return to their home country. Many have also been born in Guinea and do not know any other country.

- There are now 1,732 Sierra Leonean refugees remaining in camps in Guinea's Albadariah region, UNHCR informs today. The Guinean government has agreed to allow them to integrate locally, and is working with UNHCR and its partners to assist them.

Moussa Solano, Guinea's Minister of Territorial Administration, only in April promised the UN agency that remaining Sierra Leoneans would not be urged to leave. "The refugees will be able to request permanent residence or citizenship from the government," Minister Solano told the High Commissioner.

Also UNHCR is now turning its work with the Sierra Leoneans from repatriation into integration efforts. "Those who have opted to remain in Guinea will benefit from UNHCR assistance in agriculture, income generation activities and vocational training projects. They are expected to quickly become self reliant and start their new life among the local population," said UNHCR's Roseline Idowu.

Guinean authorities thus have seen the end of the large Sierra Leonean refugee crisis as almost all have been voluntarily repatriated. Those few remaining are still under the authority of Guinea's Bureau de Coordination des Réfugiés, but as soon as they have been resettled to a new camp in the Albadariah region, they will become free to apply for Guinean citizenship.

Also the second big refugee crisis in Guinea is set to come to an end as Liberians will start repatriating. As 14 years of civil war have come to an end and with the UN peacekeepers in control of almost all of Guinea's southern neighbour, UNHCR is considering Liberia a safe country to return to.

- Some of the 73,026 Liberian refugees living in Guinea's Forest Region camps in Kissidougou and Nzérékoré, as well as urban refugees, are expected to return home on UNHCR convoys starting in October, the UN agency reports today.

UNHCR is currently conducting information campaigns in the camps to provide the Liberian refugees with objective information on their home areas, so that they can make informed choices on whether or not to repatriate. A survey is also underway to determine how many would actually like to return to Liberia.

For Guinea, the end of the regional refugee crisis will mean relief from large government expenses and from pressures on the local communities that sustained the large concentrations of refugees. While the international community has offered some assistance, mostly channelled through UNHCR, the poor West African country was left with most of the responsibility for this enormous humanitarian effort.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Related pages and feature

Current afrol News Top Stories