UNHCR meeting on voluntary repatriation

UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representatives from four countries met in Abidjan last week to update a plan for the voluntary repatriation of refugees following the signing of the Lome peace accord, according to a UNHCR communique sent to IRIN on Monday. Refugees in the four asylum countries - Guinea, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone - are linking their repatriation to progress on disarmament and demobilisation on the ground. Moreover, not all returnee areas outside of Freetown, the capital, and Bo, the second largest town, are accessible to humanitarian workers, the UNHCR said. The meeting, which took place on the 6-7 August, concluded that UNHCR will do the following: disseminate copies of the peace accord to refugee communities and organise meetings to discuss its content; begin to facilitate repatriation 30 days following the return of RUF leader Foday Sankoh to Freetown and the formation of the new power sharing government; initiate the signing of tripartite agreements with relevant countries to assist mass voluntary repatriation; launch the official organised voluntary repatriation, expected to last two years, at the beginning of February and, in the interim, strengthen UNHCR's presence in Sierra Leone, including the opening of new offices in major returnee areas. There are some 500,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in neighbouring countries. Half of them are expected to repatriate voluntarily, 30 percent under a facilitated scheme which does not involve providing transport while the remaining 20 percent will require transport, UNHCR said. The operation plan, currently being prepared in consultation with implementing partners, should be ready by September 1999, UNHCR said.