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U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2000 - Liberia

Approximately 250,000 Liberians were refugees at the end of 1999: some 130,000 in Côte d'Ivoire, about 100,000 in Guinea, 10,000 in Ghana, about 7,000 in Sierra Leone, and 2,000 in Nigeria.

An estimated 80,000 to 100,000 Liberian refugees repatriated during the year.

About 50,000 Liberians remained internally displaced at year's end. The exact number was difficult to estimate because many displaced persons lived with friends and relatives rather than in official displacement shelters.

Approximately 90,000 refugees from Sierra Leone remained in Liberia at the end of 1999.

Pre-1999 Events

Liberia endured seven years of civil war during 1989-96. As many as 150,000 Liberians were killed as the violence rapidly disintegrated into ethnic massacres by armed insurgents and government soldiers. Most armed factions appeared to lack a political ideology and simply pursued sustained warfare, looting of villages, and exploitation of the country's abundant natural resources.

The violence forced virtually all of the country's estimated 3 million people to flee their homes for periods ranging from a few weeks to many years. Some families remained uprooted for the duration of the war. When a peace accord ended the war in 1996, at least a half-million Liberians were refugees in neighboring countries, and up to a million people were internally displaced.

Liberians gradually began to return to their homes after national elections in 1997 installed a former rebel leader, Charles Taylor, as president. An estimated quarter-million Liberian refugees repatriated during 1998. They struggled to reintegrate in a country left economically ruined and socially traumatized by the war.

Violent incidents and human rights abuses continued, often linked to the country's 40,000 ex-combatants and simmering ethnic tensions lingering after the war.

1999 Politics and Violence

The majority of Liberia's 13 counties remained relatively calm during 1999. The most serious violence occurred in northern Liberia's Lofa County, a major area of refugee return. The county remained insecure because of its proximity to war-torn Sierra Leone, historic ethnic tensions among Lofa County's own residents, a disproportionate number of ex-combatants living in the county, and abuses by Liberian government security forces.

In April, an armed raid on Lofa County in the vicinity of Voinjama town temporarily detained 17 international aid and government officials. The raiders were believed to be disgruntled former combatants or Liberian mercenaries returning from Sierra Leone seeking financial compensation. Liberian government officials blamed the attack on Liberian insurgents allegedly based in Guinea. The raid, and military counter-measures by Liberian government soldiers, displaced thousands of Lofa residents and seriously disrupted aid and reintegration efforts in the county.

In August, a second raid on Lofa County in the vicinity of Kolahun town produced additional population displacement and brought most aid programs in the county to a halt for the rest of the year. The identity and motive of the August attackers were unclear. Liberian authorities again accused neighboring Guinea of harboring Liberian insurgents and declared a state of emergency in the county.

Residents and aid workers reported that government troops that rushed to Lofa County to repel the attack engaged in widespread looting and harassment.

President Taylor reported in September that "several hundred" residents of Lofa were killed in the April and August incidents. Other sources estimated that up to 600 civilians died.

West African peacekeeping troops completed their withdrawal from Liberia in mid-1999 after nearly ten years in the country. The most significant participant in the peacekeeping force, Nigeria, reported that its troop deployment in Liberia had cost $8 billion and resulted in some 500 Nigerian troops killed or missing during the long war.

The final withdrawal of peacekeeping troops occurred after a public ceremony in which Liberian authorities and Nigerian troops burned thousands of guns and millions of rounds of ammunition to symbolize the permanent end of Liberia's war.

Despite the destruction of weapons, analysts warned that Liberia and its neighbors remained awash in weapons. U.S. officials publicly criticized the Liberian government's support for rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone. International diplomats and even many Liberian officials complained of widespread government corruption and unruly government security forces in Liberia.

"The frequency of acts of harassment, intimidation, and violations of basic human rights is on the rise," more than 50 local civic organizations stated in February. "Individual citizens live in fear of the security forces."

A consortium of local human rights groups in August warned of "the rapidly declining state of general lawlessness" and "a common thread of impunity" for atrocities. In December, Liberian human rights organizations complained that "cases of human rights violations abound across the country."

Newly Uprooted Liberians

Violence in Lofa County during April and August, as well as isolated eruptions of ethnic disputes, pushed as many as 50,000 people from their homes during the year.

In April, the town of Voinjama and other nearby villages in Lofa County nearly emptied as residents fled raiders and rampaging government troops. Some 8,000 persons fled to Guinea; others fled to safe villages in Liberia, where they sought shelter in schools and the homes of friends. Voinjama remained partially empty and insecure for at least two months, local church workers reported.

In August, some 25,000 to 50,000 persons fled violence near the Lofa County town of Kolahun. Several thousand people fled to Guinea. An assessment by several relief organizations reported that some of the displaced arrived in nearby towns wearing rags and no shoes or sandals. Families took shelter in school buildings, clinics, and other public structures. Some began to return home six weeks later.

The needs of Liberia's newly displaced people in Lofa County were difficult to assess during the last half of the year because of large-scale evacuations by aid organizations from the conflicted area in August.

Smaller numbers of families fled their homes in other parts of the country, particularly in southeastern Liberia's Maryland County, to escape harassment from government security forces.

Some families regarded their previous home towns as dangerous or economically dormant and chose to live a somewhat hidden existence in safe rural areas on the outskirts of their home villages. These partially uprooted households typically maintained occasional access to their previous homes and businesses in nearby towns.

Repatriation

Approximately two-thirds of all Liberian refugees and nearly 90 percent of all internally displaced Liberians had returned to their home areas by the end of 1999. An estimated 350,000 refugees have repatriated since mid-1997. In 1999, some 80,000 to 100,000 refugees and tens of thousands of internally displaced persons returned home.

Nearly 40,000 refugees repatriated with assistance from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) during the year: about 22,000 received UNHCR transportation to their home areas as well as repatriation packages of food and supplies; some 15,000 "semi-assisted" returnees received repatriation packages but required no transportation help. Tens of thousands of other Liberian refugees repatriated spontaneously during the year, without direct help from UNHCR.

Several factors discouraged larger repatriation during 1999. Violence in northern Liberia and the country's weak post-war economy dissuaded many refugees from repatriating during the year and forced some recent returnees to flee again. Closure of the Liberia-Guinea border in August because of political tensions abruptly halted UNHCR's organized repatriation program from Guinea for the final four months of the year.

Heavy seasonal rains during the middle of the year made most rural roads impassable. A shortage of UNHCR funding for trucks, and the breakdown of a key ferry to transport returnees home from Côte d'Ivoire, also slowed the pace of repatriation.

UNHCR planned to cease its transportation assistance for all returnees at the end of 1999. The agency stated that it would continue to provide partial reintegration help with food, small loans, and other limited services, until mid-2000.

Internally Displaced Go Home

Large numbers of internally displaced Liberians who sought shelter in Monrovia during the war continued to return to their homes in rural areas during 1999, often under pressure from government authorities intent on alleviating overcrowding in the capital and eager to convert shelter sites to other uses.

"The war is over and displaced persons should return to their respective counties," President Taylor urged in January. Authorities warned that displaced families must vacate the capital's three-dozen living sites by the end of 1999.

Some displaced families returned to remote areas of Liberia by boat. A ship carrying nearly 400 homeward-bound persons from Monrovia to the coastal town of Greenville broke down at sea for three days in October. Many families heading home received an assistance package of a hammer, nails, and plastic sheeting to repair their houses, and machetes for farming.

At the start of 1999, an estimated 75,000 Liberians resided at designated displacement sites in Monrovia. By year's end, about 10,000 remained. Thousands of other displaced Liberian families living with friends or on their own remained uncounted in Monrovia. Tens of thousands of newly displaced persons in northern Liberia also remained uprooted (see Newly Uprooted Liberians above).

Reintegration Conditions

Returnees in post-war Liberia continued to struggle with difficult living conditions during 1999.

The unemployment rate was 75 percent, according to various estimates. Most neighborhoods in Monrovia functioned without electricity or running water. Corruption and meager government funds kept services at a minimum. The economy operated with two separate local currencies. Many areas of the country were inaccessible from the capital several months per year because of poor roads and heavy seasonal rains.

A local civic agency described the Liberian economy as "a comatose patient teetering on the very edge of life," and warned that widespread unemployment "poses a serious social problem whose volatility could lead to an explosion into violent social unrest."

Many Liberians expressed disappointment that international donors, especially the United States, were providing only a fraction of the rehabilitation funding and private investment needed to improve economic and social conditions. Some Liberians blamed their government for failing to fulfill pre-election promises and failing to gain the confidence of international investors.

"Inequitable distribution of the nation's natural resources, misguided economic policies, increasing human rights violations, [and] dependency syndrome are salient factors that retard the progress and prosperity of our nation," Liberian religious leaders stated in May. "Unscrupulous misuse of the meager national resources is intolerable, while the lack of transportation, communication, and poor road conditions have imposed untold hardships on the Liberian people."

Nearly 90 percent of the population lacked access to clean water or basic health care, according to aid organizations. A cholera outbreak reportedly occurred in one remote county early in the year. Hospitals lacked sufficient drugs to combat a mid-year outbreak of tuberculosis.

Although secondary school enrollment more than doubled during the year as families returned home and some schools re-opened, more than half of school-age children still did not attend school, according to one estimate. Low teacher salaries equivalent to as little as $10 per month, coupled with late payment of salaries and lack of school supplies, triggered frequent strikes by teachers and students in some areas of the country.

Returnees in some areas, particularly ethnic Mandingoes in northern Liberia's Lofa and Nimba counties, reportedly were unable to reclaim their land from squatters. Farmers in some areas complained that land disputes, harassment by government security personnel, and shortages of seeds and tools were hurting crop production. Although local rice production in 1999 tripled wartime yields, rice crops were only 70 percent of pre-war levels, the international Food and Agriculture Organization stated.

With social cohesion shredded by the long war, there were numerous local efforts at reconciliation. Leaders of ethnic Mandingoes and ethnic Lomas - historic rivals - signed a reconciliation pact early in the year. Leaders of Christian, Muslim, and traditional local religious groups in Nimba County agreed to reconciliation efforts mid-year. Local churches appealed to donors for nearly $2 million to fund reintegration programs. President Taylor in September publicly urged all refugees to repatriate.

International Aid

Financial support for aid programs in Liberia fell far short of actual needs in 1999.

International donors, including the United States, lacked confidence in the competence and accountability of the Liberian government. International investors viewed the country as unstable. International aid organizations struggled to provide rehabilitation and long-term development projects in the face of limited budgets and concerns about security in some regions.

International donors in 1998 had pledged more than $200 million over a two-year period to help rebuild Liberia but provided only a fraction of the money during 1999. UNHCR received funding of $17 million for its operations in Liberia, far short of its original $27 million budget appeal. The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) cut its programs more than 50 percent and reduced its beneficiary list by two-thirds because of poor donor response to its 1999 funding appeal.

"Funding of the Liberian repatriation operations remains problematic," UNHCR reported mid-year. "UNHCR remains concerned about the very limited international assistance available for reconstruction in Liberia." The agency warned that inadequate funding for development programs might mean that reintegration "will not be sustainable" when UNHCR closes its programs in Liberia in mid-2000.

By late 1999, the UN World Food Program (WFP) had received only 20 percent of the food donations needed for beneficiaries in Liberia and neighboring countries. Partly by design and partly because of funding constraints, WFP reduced its school meal program from 510,000 children in 1,700 schools in 1998, to 240,000 children in about 950 schools in 1999.

President Taylor criticized the low level of international aid for his country. He charged in August that "the international community is an accessory to corruption and instability in Liberia" because, he said, international policies were inadvertently forcing impoverished Liberians, including local government officials, to engage in corruption and other criminal activity to survive.

Insecurity in Lofa County halted virtually all international development aid to that key returnee region in the final half of the year. In April, in addition to the temporary abduction of 17 UN staff and international officials conducting an assessment mission in Lofa County, assailants looted more than 400 tons of food from a WFP warehouse in Lofa County and stole vehicles and other equipment used by humanitarian aid organizations.

The Liberian government's refugee commission blamed the looting on undisciplined government security personnel. International aid workers evacuated Lofa County for more than a month, until June.

In June, raiders in Lofa County looted a warehouse operated by Catholic Relief Services. In August, all aid organizations evacuated from Lofa when conflict between insurgents and government troops degenerated into widespread looting of relief agencies' equipment and supplies. Some relief personnel evacuated via helicopter; others escaped by trekking across the border to Guinea. Combatants temporarily detained numerous aid workers.

The August violence in Lofa County resulted in the theft of up to 800 tons of food and more than a dozen vehicles owned by UNHCR, WFP, and other humanitarian organizations. "All supplies and equipment are gone," UNHCR reported. The damage was particularly costly to UNHCR, which had invested millions of dollars into projects in Lofa County to assist returnees and to support Sierra Leonean refugees encamped there.

Most observers blamed Liberian security forces for the August destruction. Liberian authorities urged relief agencies to resume operations in Lofa County in September and assured that "strict military orders have been given security personnel not to molest or harass relief workers." Aid agencies refused to resume operations, however. UNHCR announced that its programs in Lofa County were permanently closed and vowed it would not resume operations in the northern half of the county.

Aid programs continued in other parts of the country, however. Projects primarily focused on the return of refugees, basic health services, agricultural programs, education, small business loans and skills training, and reintegration of former combatants into normal society. "Assistance needs are significant," IFRC reported.

UNHCR funding helped reconstruct more than 30 schools and 15 health centers, drilled more than 100 wells and boreholes, and provided training to more than 500 teachers. International health workers conducted a nationwide polio vaccination campaign.

Liberians in the United States

Temporary asylum for many Liberians in the United States ended in late 1999.

The U.S. government provided temporary asylum, known as temporary protected status (TPS), to some 10,000 Liberians during the Liberian war. TPS for Liberians expired on September 28, 1999 because "conditions in Liberia no longer support" the need for temporary protection, a U.S. Justice Department statement said.

Many Liberians in the United States opposed the end of TPS and asserted that conditions in Liberia remained unsafe for their return. They argued that they had established permanent roots in the United States.

The U.S. government refused to reinstate TPS for Liberians but agreed to delay deportation proceedings for at least one year. "I am concerned that a decision by our government to deport Liberians...could cause governments in West Africa to deport many thousands of Liberians in their own countries," a statement by U.S. President Bill Clinton said. "The political and economic situation continues to be fragile," he added.

The presidential statement conferred an administrative status known as delayed enforced departure (DED) on the former Liberian TPS caseload.

Through other mechanisms, approximately 2,500 Liberian refugees gained admission to the United States in 1999 for permanent resettlement.

Refugees from Sierra Leone

Tens of thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees fled to Liberia during the 1990s to escape civil war and human rights atrocities in their own country.

More than half of the refugees settled into camps and local communities in northern Liberia's Lofa County, near the border. Others settled into less isolated locations in western Liberia's Cape Mount and Montserrado counties. Liberia's own civil war often blocked humanitarian aid to much of the Sierra Leonean refugee population until 1996. Even after the war, poor roads impeded regular access to the refugees several months each year.

International aid workers cautioned in 1998 that Sierra Leonean rebels guilty of atrocities in their own country were living at some refugee sites in Liberia. Several relief agencies expressed reluctance about providing humanitarian aid without proper screening of the refugee population and recommended the transfer of some camps to safer locations.

In early 1999, Sierra Leonean refugees in Lofa County complained to local Liberian officials about harassment and food confiscations by Liberian security forces in the area. "We are very concerned by the well-being of the refugees as well as the safety of our colleagues," UNHCR stated in April. The Sierra Leonean ambassador to Liberia visited several refugee sites in July to urge cordial relations between the refugees and local officials.

Security for Sierra Leonean refugees in Lofa County deteriorated dramatically in August after armed Liberian insurgents temporarily invaded the county. Aid to the refugees suddenly ceased when international relief organizations, including UNHCR, fled the area. "Everything that we need for the Sierra Leonean refugee care and maintenance program has been looted," a UNHCR official stated.

Looting and physical threats against the refugees by Liberian government forces in the area forced some 10,000 refugees to flee 120 miles (200 km) on foot through dense forests in search of safety and humanitarian aid. The trek took nearly a week for many refugees. Several hundred elderly and infirm Sierra Leonean refugees who were unable to evacuate the area on foot received aid via helicopter from Médecins Sans Frontières until a UNHCR truck convoy escorted them to safety in October.

Refugees who fled on foot temporarily settled in the tiny Liberian village of Tarvey, where UNHCR and NGOs scrambled to provide food, water, and basic health care pending the refugees' relocation to a more permanent new site. Overcrowding and unsanitary conditions at the Tarvey site produced health problems among the refugees and the local Liberian population.

Protection concerns immediately surfaced at Tarvey: government security forces charged "registration" fees from the refugee population; tensions between the hungry refugees and local farmers mounted. Liberian authorities in September belatedly approved a permanent transfer of the uprooted refugees to an existing camp, Sinje, where 5,000 Sierra Leonean refugees already resided.

Large truck convoys organized by UNHCR gradually transported the refugees from Tarvey to Sinje - a task made difficult by poor roads, heavy rains, and the need for constant truck repairs. The $1.8 million transfer operation ended in mid-November.

By year's end, about 15,000 Sierra Leonean refugees lived at the expanded Sinje site, located about 50 miles (80 km) from Monrovia.

Following a site visit to Sinje camp by the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), a USCR report in November warned that plans by UNHCR and WFP to cut the refugees' food distributions were unwise. "Sierra Leonean refugees transferring to Sinje camp cannot be expected to become half self-sufficient by [year's end]. New refugees at Sinje camp require full food rations for several additional months before donors can reasonably expect them to support themselves," USCR recommended.

Liberian and Sierra Leonean government officials formally re-opened their mutual border in October after closing it in late 1998 because of Sierra Leone's war. The re-opening enabled several hundred Sierra Leonean ex-combatants exiled in Liberia to return home in the final months of 1999. About 5,000 refugees repatriated from Liberia to Sierra Leone during the year.

USCR Actions

The U.S. Committee for Refugees conducted a one-month site visit to Liberia and neighboring countries in October to assess the status of repatriation and reintegration. USCR met with about 150 Liberians and international aid workers to gauge the attitudes of Liberian returnees and refugees. The agency published its "Findings and Recommendations" in November.

"Liberians are nervous about the potential for future instability," the USCR report concluded. "Potential for additional security incidents remains high." The report stated that "Liberia's war has left a noticeable divide in Liberian society between young and old. This affects social reintegration."

USCR's site visit found significant progress in repatriation and reintegration occurred during the year, even though most key towns remained half-empty and economically depressed. The site visit indicated that certain ethnic groups, particularly Mandingoes in some areas, encountered difficulty reclaiming their property after returning from asylum countries.

USCR provided 38 policy recommendations to the Liberian government, the U.S. government, UNHCR, and to relief agencies. USCR urged Liberian and Guinean officials to re-open their mutual border to facilitate voluntary repatriation. The report urged President Taylor to travel more widely in his country to facilitate reconciliation and communication. USCR recommended that international aid programs in Liberia emphasize democracy and government accountability, road repairs, small business loans, and school repairs.

USCR's site visit report concluded that "Liberia's economy and political system...sorely miss tens of thousands of Liberia's 'best and brightest' who remain in exile."

After its site visit, USCR conducted a public briefing in November, "Post-War Liberia: Starting Over Again Toward Peace...Or War," and met privately with officials of the U.S. government, the UN, and private aid organizations to discuss policy options.

USCR joined with other humanitarian organizations in July to urge the U.S. government either to extend temporary protected status for Liberians or to delay their expulsion from the United States. There is a "continued lack of security guarantees for the civilian population," the joint statement said. "Liberia's own security forces have yet to prove themselves as a disciplined force.... Clearly, Liberia has a long way to go...in achieving conditions of confidence and stability. Fear of insecurity within the country remains high in some areas." U.S. officials agreed to delay deportation for a year.