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Solving the region’s refugee problem is dependent on improving living conditions in refugee-hosting areas and countries of origin, the president of UNHCR’s Executive Committee said on Saturday. At a news conference in the Ivorian capital Abidjan, Ambassador Victor Rodriguez Cedeno warned that poor socio-economic conditions in countries of origin, such as Liberia, could result in repatriation efforts being followed by renewed population movements. Without political stability and adequate living conditions in home areas “we won’t see an end to the refugee problem” in the region, he said.
With some 700,000 Sierra Leoneans and Liberians, the region now has the largest refugee population in Africa. Cedeno, who described West Africa’s refugee problem as inter-linked and “very complex”, has completed a two-week mission to Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and Liberia. A planned visit to Sierra Leone was cancelled due to the security situation. Cedeno said he would present a report on his mission to the 53-member Executive Committee.
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