POPULATION-LIBERIA: Refugees in Nigeria Sign Up To Return Home

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Mar 10 1998 (IPS) - Liberian refugees began streaming into the offices of the National Commission for Refugees Tuesday to register for the voluntary repatriation programme, which will return some 6000 Liberians to their home.

Jingles on the radio and a broadcast video of Liberian President Charles Taylor appealing to Liberians to return home and help rebuild the country, have been part of the repatriation exercise which officially starts on Wednesday.

“Every Liberian refugee in Nigeria is expected to register for the exercise and is expected to leave the country, because the situation which made them refugees is no longer there,” one official, who declined to be named, told IPS Tuesday.

“But those who are not willing to go back home, must give genuine reasons, which should be passed in writing through the National Commission For Refugees (NCFR) or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to the Nigerian immigration service,” the official added.

“Although the refugees are eager to go back home, as in all refugee situations, for convenience or political reasons, some cannot return, “said Guenet Guebre-Christos, the UNHCR representative in Nigeria. “Such cases will be examined by the Nigerian government and they may continue to enjoy asylum.”

She told journalists here Tuesday that those Liberians who remain in Nigeria, will no longer be considered as refugees.

As part of the repatriation programme, NCFR and UNHCR officials began in late February, a programme to provide the Liberian refugees and officials within both agencies with information to facilitate the repatriation programme.

A workshop for NCFR and UNHCR protection and counselling officers, non-governmental organisations, immigrations, customs and security officials has been held. And, Liberian refugees at Oru camp, some 95 kilometres northeast of Lagos, have received counselling, briefings, and viewed a video on voluntary repatriation.

Oru was set up by the Nigerian government for Liberians fleeing their country in 1990.

The UNHCR and several non-governmental organisations will provide the refugees with food and other basic amenities for their departure and on arrival in Liberia, Guebre-Christos said.

Inside Liberia, UNHCR , the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and others, have already started to assist the government to rebuild roads, clinics, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure destroyed during that country’s protracted civil war.

“Given the magnitude of the problem on the ground, the UNHCR has been given the mandate to participate in the rehabilitation programme,” Guebre-Christos said.

” We will also document children who have no parents in Liberia, but at this point, we will not repatriate such children,” she said.

“We will first try and locate their relations in Liberia before moving them. If no relation is found, then the Liberian government will be approached to take care of them,” Guebre- Christos said.

The first batch of Liberians are expected to leave Nigeria next week.