Lubbers to work for humanitarian passage

UN High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers has vowed to urge officials in Guinea, Sierra Leona and Liberia to work for a humanitarian passage in the border region of southwest Guinea, the UNHCR spokesman in Geneva, Kris Janowski, said Tuesday.

Lubbers, who ended a two-day visit to Guinea on Tuesday, is in Freetown on the second leg of his five-nation West Africa tour. He said earlier that sanctions against countries which block access to an estimated 140,000 refugees trapped in the Parrots Beak - a chunk of Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone - were a matter for the international community.

“As a humanitarian organisation UNHCR’s preferred solution is agreement by all parties and governments in the region for immediate access to the affected population and safe passage for them,” Janowski said.

In a meeting on Monday with Guinean president Lansana Conte, Lubbers received Guinea’s pledge of cooperation with UNHCR in ensuring a safe passage for the stranded Sierra Leonean and Liberian refugees.

UNHCR began relocating the refugees on 6 January from the Katkama and Nyaedou camps, in Guinea’s troubled border regions. So far, some 4,000 refugees have been moved to a newly established site in Kountaya, in the Albadaria Prefecture.

Janowski said that more than 30,000 Sierra Leonean refugees had returned home. He added that 10,000 had gone back on UNHCR/IOM-chartered boats while more than 20,000 have returned on their own.