Refugees – 2002
2002
UNHCR assisted approximately 107,000 registered Sierra Leonean refugees, as well as an additional 80,000 unregistered refugees living outside camps. Since September 2000, UNHCR has assisted 68,698 refugees, while others returned spontaneously.1
“A central aspect of the recovery process is the facilitation of the resettlement of internally displaced persons and returning refugees. They are returning to areas that are among the poorest and most devastated, and where concentrations of ex-combatants are high. The third phase of the national resettlement programme commenced on 28 March and ran through 30 April, at which point operations were suspended for the election period. Some 120,000 internally displaced persons were resettled in the newly accessible areas during this phase” (page 6). The report further suggests that the UNHCR “expanded the resettlement of returnees to chiefdoms in Kono and Kailahun districts. Since March, more than 30,000 returnees have been resettled and more than 15,500 Sierra Leonean refugees repatriated (about 7,500 from Guinea and about 8,000 from Liberia). At present, approximately 22,000 returnees continue to reside in temporary settlements or host communities, in one chiefdom in Pujehun district. It is estimated that about 165,000 Sierra Leonean refugees continue to receive asylum in the subregion” (S/2002/679, June 19, 2002, page 6).