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More returnees arrive in Freetown

    NAIROBI

    UNHCR said that 2,000 people arrived in Freetown from Guinea on Monday, bringing to 17,000 the number of Sierra Leoneans who have returned by boat since September.

    Of these, the agency said, at least 4,000 are former refugees, about three-quarters of whom have been housed temporarily at a UNHCR transit centre outside Freetown. UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said a second transit centre should be opened to increase temporary hosting capacity by about 2,000.

    The UNHCR said spontaneous returns by land and boat may have decreased significantly the number of Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea. They totalled some 330,000 before a series of cross border attacks from Sierra Leone in September and after the Guinean government imposed restrictions on refugees.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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