Photo Credit: Refugees International/ Deborah Terry
05/29/2005

UNHCR has been attempting to accelerate the rate of facilitated refugee returns over the past few months – there are still over 200,000 Liberians in Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire and elsewhere. A big push was made in April and May of this year in order to try and repatriate as many refugees as possible to vote in the upcoming October elections. Because of such factors as the unfinished school year, the start of the rainy season, underdevelopment in the areas of return, and fear of renewed violence after the elections, many Liberian refugees have decided to stay put in their camps.

Here, UNHCR has just transported around 130 refugees and their luggage from a camp across the border in Sierra Leone. Most of them spent a day in the Transit Center in Foya, in Lofa county, before being taken to a local drop off point with their assistance packages, which include such items as blankets, jerry cans, plastic sheeting, and a two month food ration.