UNHCR caring for 12,000 refugees in transit camps

UNHCR says it is caring, in transit camps, for at least 12,000 refugees waiting to be sent to safer areas in Guinea. However, “more refugees, mostly Sierra Leoneans, continue to arrive daily in the makeshift transit centre at Katkama,” the agency reported on Tuesday. Katkama, 30 km north of Guekedou, was partially destroyed when insurgents started their raids into Guinea from Sierra Leone in September 2000. The UNHCR said it would begin transferring refuges on Wednesday from Katkama to a new camp at Boreah, 50 km north of Kountaya. Meanwhile, it said, the Katkama camp is being expanded “in anticipation of new arrivals”. UNHCR trucks have been scouting the northern segment of the Parrot’s Beak, a piece of Guinean territory that juts into eastern Sierra Leone, in search of vulnerable refugees trying to reach Katkama. Some 9,000 refugees fled the Parrot’s Beak when insurgents attacked the town of Nongoa on 9 March. Many headed north to Mongo and Katkama. Others crossed into Sierra Leone or are still hiding in the forest, UNHCR reported. Meanwhile, UNHCR has been taking refugees away from Massakoundou camp, which is close to the Sierra Leonean border, near the town of Kissidougou. The agency reported that 700 had already been taken to Kountaya, farther north, bringing to 23,000 the refugees taken to the site. “Further transfers will now go to the new Boreah camp,” the agency reported. Guinean troop searches of Massakoundou have made the transfers from that camp more compelling, UNHCR reported. Recently 500 refugees - including NGO workers - were taken in for questioning by the army. UNHCR cited a survey it carried out in the camp, before the refugees were detained, which showed that 53 percent wanted to return to Sierra Leone. UNHCR said 40 percent would have liked to remain in the camp while 6 percent wanted to relocate within Guinea. Nearly 1,000 people from Massakoundou who tried to reach Conakry by bus were turned back by Guinean soldiers who said they had no authorisation to travel. The refugees had wanted to join an International Oranisation for Migration boatlift from Conakry to Freetown which, UNHCR reported, has taken 30,000 people back to Sierra Leone since September 2000.