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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

SIERRA LEONE: Refugees in Guinea urged to return home

ABIDJAN, 16 April 2003 (IRIN) - Officials of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and Sierra Leone government are conducting a joint information campaign in refugee camps to encourage Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea to go back home.

Briefing journalists in Geneva on Tuesday, UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski said the information campaign provided refugees with first-hand information about the situation in their homeland to enable them make an informed decision on whether to return.

It covers the security situation in the areas the refugees come from and also tells them of efforts by UNHCR and the Sierra Leone government to improve education and healthcare and provide shelter for those going back, he said.

The refugees have responded well to the campaign and many show willingness to repatriate, Janowski said, adding that a recent survey among some of the 35,000 Sierra Leoneans remaining in camps in Guinea showed that up to 80 percent of them were willing to return this year. Some have asked for additional help such as transport of livestock and furniture.

Meanwhile, the agency has decided to speed up the pace of returns from Guinea to Sierra Leone through the once volatile Parrot's Beak region, - a sliver of Guinean territory that juts into Sierra Leone - increasing the frequency of repatriation convoys to six per week, with each convoy carrying 500 people.

According Janowski, the repatriation through Gueckedou and the Parrot's Beak started on 4 April, following the opening of a new causeway across the Moa River that marks the border between Guinea and Sierra Leone. In the last 10 days, some 2,800 refugees had used "this new, faster and more direct" return route into Kailahun, eastern Sierra Leone.

The agency hopes to return up to 26,000 refugees before the rainy season starts around midyear, using both the new route and old one, which is less direct and goes through Kambia in northwestern Sierra Leone. "If the current pace of returns continues, the repatriation to Sierra Leone could be completed by the end of next year," Janowski added.

Themes: (IRIN) Refugees/IDPs

[ENDS]

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