• Text size Normal size text | Increase text size by 10% | Increase text size by 20% | Increase text size by 30%
  • Also available in French

UNHCR closes a transit centre for Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire

News Stories, 7 July 2006

© UNHCR/S.Kpandji
Before leaving the UNHCR transit centre at Tabou, all former refugee residents received household items and food rations for the next three months. The centre closed earlier this week.

TABOU, Côte d'Ivoire, July 7 (UNHCR) – The closure earlier this week of the UNHCR transit centre in this town in south-west Côte d'Ivoire ended another chapter in the search for solutions for thousands of Liberian refugees. UNHCR representative Mahamadou Touré handed the keys of the centre to local officials during a brief ceremony on Monday.

Commenting on the reasons for the closure, Touré said the experience of refugees admitted to transit centres went through "an influx stage when refugees are hosted and settled, an assistance stage and a closure stage when the conditions are right for the refugees to return to their country of origin." He said high maintenance costs were also a factor.

Tabou is located on the southernmost tip of Côte d'Ivoire's western border with Liberia. This area hosts most of the 38,000 Liberian refugees in Côte d'Ivoire, with more than 25,000 in the prefectures of Tabou and San Pédro alone.

Built in 1998 for repatriation operations, the transit centre here was expanded to temporarily accept more than 3,000 Liberian refugees fleeing fighting in their homeland in May 2003. It has been kept open longer than originally planned in the hope that the refugees would return home under a voluntary repatriation programme launched by UNHCR in October 2004.

Improvements in the political and security situation in Liberia allowed UNHCR to begin the process of facilitating and encouraging the return of refugees. More than 15,000 Liberian refugees have returned home with the UN refugee agency's help since UNHCR and the governments of Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire signed a tripartite agreement on September 27, 2004. A further 15,0000 have returned home without help.

With Liberia's return to normality after last year's presidential election, UN agencies moved toward promotion of repatriation in February this year and encouraged refugees to follow the example of those who had already returned.

Throughout last year and the first four months of this year, UNHCR and Liberian authorities ran an information campaign about the planned closure of the Tabou centre. The campaign was aimed at refugees and communities who had hosted them.

The relocation of some 2,400 Liberian refugees who have been living in the centre and want to remain in the area was launched on June 15 with the help of local authorities began and by the end of the month they had all been found places to stay in Tabou and surrounding villages.

By Simplice Kpandji in Tabou, Côte d'Ivoire

• DONATE NOW • • GET INVOLVED • • STAY INFORMED •

 

Related Stories

more documents

UNHCR country pages

Côte d'Ivoire Urgent Appeal

And help provide emergency supplies and shelter to Ivorians forced from their homes by the crisis in Côte d'Ivoire.

Donate to this crisis

Emergency in Côte d'Ivoire

Find out more about UNHCR's response to the new displacement crisis in West Africa.

New flows of Ivorian refugees into Liberia

As of late March, more than 100,000 Ivorian refugees had crossed into eastern Liberia since lingering political tension from a disputed presidential election in neighbouring Côte d' Ivoire erupted into violence in February. Most have gone to Liberia's Nimba County, but in a sign that the fighting has shifted, some 6,000 Ivorians recently fled across the border into Liberia's Grand Gedeh County. Most of the new arrivals have settled in remote villages - some inaccessible by car. The UN refugee agency sent a mission to assess the needs of the refugees in the region.

Photographer Glenna Gordon photographed new arrivals near Zwedru in south-eastern Liberia.

New flows of Ivorian refugees into Liberia

Running for shelter in Côte d'Ivoire

UNHCR has expressed its mounting concern about civilians trapped in the Abobo district of Cote d'Ivoire's commercial centre, Abidjan, following days of fierce fighting between forces loyal to rival presidential candidates. The situation there remains grim. Many of the 1.5 million inhabitants of Abobo have fled, but armed groups are reportedly preventing others from leaving. UNHCR is particularly concerned about vulnerable people, such as the sick and the elderly, who may not be able to leave.

Running for shelter in Côte d'Ivoire

Liberia: Return, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Colombia's armed conflict has forced millions of people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in other countries in the region.

Along the border with Colombia, Panama's Darien region is a thick and inhospitable jungle accessible only by boat. Yet many Colombians have taken refuge here after fleeing the irregular armed groups who control large parts of jungle territory on the other side of the border.

Many of the families sheltering in the Darien are from Colombia's ethnic minorities – indigenous or Afro-Colombians – who have been particularly badly hit by the conflict and forcibly displaced in large numbers. In recent years, there has also been an increase in the numbers of Colombians arriving in the capital, Panama City.

There are an estimated 12,500 Colombians of concern to UNHCR in Panama, but many prefer not to make themselves known to authorities and remain in hiding. This "hidden population" is one of the biggest challenges facing UNHCR not only in Panama but also in Ecuador and Venezuela.

Liberia: Return, Reintegration, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction

Liberia: A Neighbour's HelpPlay video

Liberia: A Neighbour's Help

Alphonse Gonglegbe fled to Liberia with his family a few months ago. He appreciates the help he's been receiving in this land neighbouring his native Côte d'Ivoire.
Liberia: Hurried FlightPlay video

Liberia: Hurried Flight

Tens of thousands of Ivorians have fled their villages and sought shelter in Liberia. Francis says he ran for his life and now he wants safety and food.
Liberia: Settling InPlay video

Liberia: Settling In

A dozen new shelters are built every day in Liberia's Bahn refugee camp. Eventually there will be 3,000 shelters for some of the many civilians who have fled from neighbouring Côte d'Ivoire.