Refugees stream into transit centres

Hundreds of Sierra Leonean refugees seeking passage home continue to stream daily into a crowded holding facility in the Guinean capital of Conakry, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Tuesday in Geneva.
Nearly 2,400 refugees are already at the centre waiting for a boat to Freetown. Thousands more are emerging daily from the bush north of the southwestern town of Guekedou where they have been fleeing rebel attacks, the agency said.

A UNHCR-chartered ship made its fifth voyage to Freetown on 30 December, bringing to 1,559 the number of refugees the agency has repatriated voluntarily. The agency said it was increasing capacity at the transit centre for between 3,000 and 5,000 people because of the continuing demand for sea passage to Freetown. UNHCR said most wanted to go home.
“They prefer to be settled in government-controlled areas of Sierra Leone rather than remain in areas of Guinea that could be vulnerable to rebel attack,” the agency said earlier.

Guinea’s Interior Ministry has given the UNHCR final approval to build a new transit camp at Sangardo, 30 km northwest of Kissidougou, for 60,000 refugees who fled the Guekedou region. Sites have also been approved for Albadaria and Dabola, north and west of Faranah. Together, these two sites could shelter up to 40,000 refugees.
The UNHCR said it was informing villagers near the sites on their obligations to protect and help the refugees.

“The initiative aims to counter the growing animosity towards the refugees in recent weeks by some Guineans who blame them for the rebel attacks in the southwest,” the UNHCR said.