Refugees asked to move out of Conakry

Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees living in the Guinean capital, Conakry, run the risk of being "rounded up forcibly" and deported, if they fail to meet a 31 August deadline to go back to camps or opt to be repatriated back home. The Guinean government decision followed an attack on the vehicle of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative in Conakry, David Kappia, on 30 June. "One refugee was dissatisfied with the Representative's decision that he move to a camp in order to be assisted so he decided to protest outside the UNHCR premises by pelting the representative's car with stones," a UNHCR official in Conakry told IRIN on Wednesday. The refugee had been demanding that he be resettled by the agency. However UNHCR said it resettles refugees from the camps and not from the capital. Other refugees sprinkled petrol on the car and lit a matchstick to set it ablaze. "Luckily the vehicle did not explode," the official said. Six refugees were arrested by Guinean authorities and were awaiting prosecution. "UNHCR will wait to see what they are charged with and the outcome of the trial and also check against the international regulations governing refugees' stay in a country to see whether that decision would warrant our intervention," the official said. The minister for territorial administration asked that refugees be transferred to the designated camps in the southwestern areas of Kissidougou and N'zerekore on 7 July. Any refugee who failed to leave Conakry by the 31 August, the minister said, would be deemed in breach of Guinean regulations and will be dealt with according to the law. "Those who remain in Conakry after this date run the risk of being rounded up forcibly," a press release put out by the agency at the minister's request said. It asked refugees to register to be relocated to camps or to be repatriated to their countries of origin. "UNHCR informed the refugees so that those willing would be transferred. We also let them know that we would be shifting our support to them from the urban area to the camps," the official added. "By this announcement we are trying to avoid a situation where refugees are rounded up and repatriated. We will always try to intervene," the official added. Official figures show that at least 40,000 Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees live in Conakry, most of them waiting to be taken to a third country under the Refugee Resettlement Programme.