Resettlement of IDPs will start in November - UNHCR

An official drive to resettle about 300,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) in Liberia will start in November, a month after the programme to repatriate refugees living in other West African countries, Golam Abass, the deputy head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR in Liberia said on Friday.

Abass said the resettlement of IDPs had been delayed to allow more time for northwestern Liberia which most of the IDP's come from to be declared safe after 14 years of civil war.

“We have planned to begin the resettlement of IDPs on November 1 and we hope by the end of the year to help in resettling 100,000 of them”, Abass told IRIN in an interview.

He said most of the IDPs living in camps around the outskirts of Monrovia came from Lofa, Bong, Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties in northwestern Liberia.

However, so far only Bomi and Grand Cape Mount, situated on the coast between Monrovia and the Sierra Leone border, have been declared safe for IDPs and refugees to return to.

Relief workers said about 70 percent of the IDPs came from Lofa and Bong counties, further inland.

“Security is the main focus of our plans for the repatriation of refugees and resettlement of IDPs," Abass said. "We do not encourage IDPs and refugees to return to their counties of origin when the disarmament exercise has not been completed and they have not yet been declared safe by us or the government.”

“We will not repatriate or resettle refugees in counties that have not been declared safe”, he stressed.

UN peacekeepers concluded the disarming of Liberia's former warring factions in Bong county, to the north of Monrovia, last month. Abass said there were "indications" that Bong would be declared safe for the return of IDPs and refugees soon.

However, the disarmament of fighters in Lofa county in the far northwest of Liberia is still going on and is not due to end until 31 October.

Abass said the United Nations was still short of the money needed to send home all the IDPs in Liberia and repatriate up to 350,000 Liberian refugees living in other West African countries.

Donors had so far provided only US$17 million of the $39 million needed, he said, adding that this funding gap would slow down the operation.

“Because of funding constraints, we can only assist a limited number of 100,000 IDPs and 50,000 refugees for this year alone. All of them will receive equal resettlement packages including shelter materials,” Abass said.

“The first batch of Liberian refugees to be repatriated will arrive at the Liberian-Sierra Leone border on October 1 and already UNHCR offices in Guinea and Sierra Leone have started registering refugees for the programme," he added.