Sierra Leone passport for Liberian refugees
The ECOWAS Communication Officer, Paul Ejime has told journalists that Liberian refugees who may want to integrate in Sierra Leone are free to do so as modalities will be put in place to ensure that every thing is appropriate for those who may wish to stay.
Ejime made this disclosure at a press briefing held at the Presidential Lounge of the National Stadium, Friday 3rd May.
He made reference to the fact that in October 2006, the President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambers launched the Support of ECOWAS for Peace and Development Programme (PEDEP) in Freetown in pursuance with the development of the status of refugees in terms of Humanitarians Dimension that was drafted into a project by the ECOWAS Commission, UNHCR and the ADB.
He said that Development Project was to provide shelter as another livelihood for the refugees in the four countries, namely, the Republic of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast and the Togolese Republic were targeted to benefit from the project and to accelerate the attainment of the main objectives of the Project, with the exception of the Republic of Ivory Coast and the Togolese Republic which were left out during the initial phase of the programme, adding that the remaining four countries were serviced as a pilot of the Project.
Paul Ejime also informed the press that they had visited 12 cities in the East and South of the country and that during their visit a total of 2.713 million former Liberian refugees had stayed in the country over the years that had been integrated into the Sierra Leonean society by the ECOWAS intervention for Peace and Development Project in collaboration with the UNHC.
Moijama Saffa, Protection Associate of UNHCR said that Refugees had been provided with comfortable and unique shelters and that the process of regulating their status to sign up as Sierra Leonean Citizenship was on course.
Moijama also stated that very soon the integrated former refugees will receive Sierra Leonean passports, adding that already 40 new houses have been built for them through the funds provided by the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) and expressed sincere appreciation with the hope to expand the building project.
She also responded that for the acquisition of lands for the former Liberians, they had been holding several meetings with stakeholders and their line ministries together with NaSCA for their role in the said matter.
She noted that not all Liberians were integrated as they had an exempted case of 1.3 million who have still not decided as to whether they should go back to Liberia or be integrated.
By Mohamed Y. Turay
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