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Refugee students get help

    ABIDJAN

    Nearly 700 refugee students in the primary and secondary sectors in Sierra Leone are to receive assistance from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR said in its weekly update of 27 April - 3 May.

    The assistance will include money for examination fees and school uniforms and will target some 600 primary school students and 80 secondary school students in the Eastern and Southern Provinces, UNHCR reported. Support will also be provided for informing refugees of their entitlements through radio announcements and refugee committees. Regular meetings on education issues between refugees, UNHCR, the Norwegian Refugee Council and other implementing partners, are scheduled to take place after general elections on 14 May, UNHCR added.

    Since September 2000, UNHCR has registered and facilitated the return of nearly 90,000 Sierra Leonean refugees, mainly from Guinea and Liberia. An estimated 70,000 people are believed to have returned spontaneously making a total of 160,000 returnees.

    There are an estimated 165,000 Sierra Leonean refugees in the sub-region including some 95,000 in Guinea, 55,000 in Liberia and 7,600 in The Gambia. There are also around 2,000 in Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria respectively and a few hundred in Guinea-Bissau and Senegal, UNHCR reported..

    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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