U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 2003 - Liberia

Approximately 380,000 or more Liberians were uprooted at the end of 2002, including an estimated 280,000 refugees and asylum seekers, and 100,000 to 150,000 internally displaced persons.

At least 200,000 Liberians fled their homes during the year, although some returned home before year's end.

The nearly 280,000 Liberian refugees and asylum seekers included some 110,000 in Guinea, about 60,000 in Sierra Leone, some 50,000 in Côte d'Ivoire, up to 35,000 in Ghana, about 2,000 in various other West African countries, and some 20,000 in the United States and other industrialized countries.

Approximately 65,000 refugees lived in Liberia at the end of 2002, including an estimated 40,000 from Sierra Leone, nearly 20,000 from Côte d'Ivoire, and some 5,000 from various other West African countries.

Pre-2002 Events

A seven-year civil war ended in 1996 after killing an estimated 150,000 people and uprooting more than 1.5 million.

Peaceful elections in 1997 gave the presidency to former rebel leader Charles Taylor. Most Liberian refugees and displaced persons returned home, although about 130,000 remained uprooted.

Armed insurgents – known as Liberians United for Reconstruction and Development (LURD) – launched isolated attacks during 1998–99 in the country's remote Lofa County, near Liberia's border with Guinea.

Intensified attacks during 2000–2001 pushed more than 100,000 people from their homes and triggered increasingly harsh human rights violations by government forces.

The UN Security Council imposed economic sanctions and an arms embargo on Liberia in an effort to moderate President Taylor's policies.

The Liberian government easily procured new weapons despite the embargo, and accused Guinea of supporting insurgent attacks.

At the end of 2002, at least 250,000 Liberians remained uprooted.

2002 Politics and Violence Attacks by LURD rebels widened during 2002 and struck within 50 miles (80 km) of Monrovia, the capital. LURD temporarily captured towns in western Liberia's Bomi and Cape Mount Counties before a government counterattack pushed the rebels back to northern border areas in Lofa County by year's end.

The war often adopted a surreal quality. Although numerous LURD attacks occurred, Liberian journalists and some international aid workers charged that the government was "stage-managing" much of the violence in an effort to gain international sympathy and end the UN arms embargo.

As a result, international observers and many Liberians themselves struggled to determine the accuracy of basic facts and the real identity of perpetrators of specific violent incidents.

Government troops committed widespread human rights violations, including killings, rapes, looting civilians in conflict zones, and forcibly conscripting young males off the street into military service.

LURD rebels blocked thousands of people from fleeing and pressed many into forced labor.

UN humanitarian officials warned in late 2002 that "the overall security situation in Liberia remains precarious."

Uprooted Liberians

At least 200,000 people fled their homes during 2002, including 80,000 or more who left the country to live at refugee sites in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and other nearby countries.

Newly uprooted families joined hundreds of thousands of other refugees and internally displaced Liberians who had fled in earlier years.

"The ongoing conflict continues to take a huge toll on the Liberian population, in terms of growing numbers of dead and wounded, population displacement, and the attendant human suffering," a report by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated in October.

Most population upheaval occurred in the western half of the country, where the war regularly overran sites sheltering displaced Liberians and forced already uprooted populations to flee repeatedly.

Some families fled as many as six times from one location to another in a desperate effort to stay one step ahead of the war and pervasive looting and abductions by soldiers.

"Displacement sites virtually have become the front lines in a Liberian war otherwise lacking clear battle lines," the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR) reported after visiting the region in mid-year.

Government and rebel combatants deliberately blocked civilians from fleeing and forced others to pay fees or perform hard labor before allowing them to reach safety. "A cruel and pervasive system of ‘pay to escape' has taken root in Liberia, trapping thousands of would-be refugees," a USCR report stated.

Guinean officials closed their border for much of the year, impeding, but not entirely stopping new Liberian refugees. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of families became separated while struggling to reach safe areas inside or outside Liberia.

Tens of thousands of uprooted Liberians took shelter in a dozen displacement camps near Monrovia and elsewhere. Some 30,000 displaced persons settled next to existing camps for Sierra Leonean refugees near Monrovia, apparently hoping proximity to the camps would bring protection and humanitarian aid.

Thousands of others found shelter with friends and relatives in Monrovia, where they lived uncounted and unregistered.

International relief organizations struggled to keep pace with the large population movements.

The World Food Program provided food to internally displaced Liberians, but had to cut rations in half for two months because of slow food shipments into the country.

Many newly uprooted persons reportedly failed to receive food aid for months because of administrative delays in registering them.

Health conditions varied greatly. Some displacement camps and local communities suffered a cholera outbreak in September. A health survey by the International Rescue Committee found high death rates in some camps, severe shortages of latrines, and poor water supplies.

"The humanitarian response is weak and inadequate, and the basic needs of the civilians caught in this conflict are not being met," Médecins Sans Frontières stated.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) extended its mandate to address the needs of internally displaced Liberians, particularly those living adjacent to refugee camps.

UNHCR provided blankets, sleeping mats, plastic sheeting, cooking utensils, and medical care at some sites. Many at-risk populations received no outside assistance, however. "Humanitarian agencies still have no access to several parts ... of the country and no information is available on refugees and internally displaced persons trapped in these conflict zones," UNHCR reported in late 2002.

By year's end, the actual number of internally displaced Liberians remained unclear and was a matter of controversy. Most aid workers charged that Liberian authorities were inflating the official number of displaced persons in a bid for more aid dollars.

The International Committee of the Red Cross noted that many Liberians, although not uprooted, registered as displaced persons because they were destitute in a wrecked economy.

USCR estimated that 100,000 to 150,000 Liberians were internally displaced at the end of 2002, including about 75,000 in camps and tens of thousands of others living with friends and relatives.

The U.S. government granted Temporary Protected Status in October to Liberians already residing or visiting in the United States. The U.S. declaration granted safe haven for a year to an estimated 15,000 or more Liberians whose right to remain in the United States otherwise would have expired. In addition, some 2,000 asylum applications by Liberians remained under consideration by U.S. authorities.

Repatriation and Reintegration

Approximately 400,000 Liberian refugees have repatriated since 1997. About 20,000 repatriated during 2002 from Côte d'Ivoire because of a new civil war in that country.

Refugees' spontaneous return from Côte d'Ivoire late in the year caught aid agencies unprepared because their return was largely an unplanned evacuation from conflict. UNHCR chartered two dozen trucks to transport returnees from the border to their home areas.

Liberian authorities temporarily detained about 25 refugees who repatriated from Côte d'Ivoire by air in December. Officials suspected the returnees of being rebel sympathizers.

Reintegration assistance for the returnees was minimal despite Liberia's miserable living conditions. "Over 80 percent of the population live below the poverty line, and more than half live in abject poverty. The unemployment is at a high of 85 percent," reported UNICEF.

Refugees from Sierra Leone

Tens of thousands of refugees fled from Sierra Leone to Liberia during the 1990s to escape civil war.

Thousands of Sierra Leonean refugees repatriated in during 2001-2002 as peace has returned to their country and warfare has resumed in Liberia. An estimated 30,000 Sierra Leonean refugees returned home from Liberia during 2002, leaving approximately 40,000 in Liberia at year's end.

At the beginning of 2002, about half of the refugee population lived on their own in Lofa County, near the Liberia-Sierra Leone border, where violence rendered them largely inaccessible to relief workers. The remaining 30,000 refugees resided in five designated camps closer to Monrovia.

Liberia's widening war blocked a key highway and made the largest refugee camp, Sinje, inaccessible to aid workers for several weeks early in the year. In June, combatants destroyed Sinje and forced the camp's 10,000 to 15,000 refugees to flee. At least four refugees died in the attack on Sinje, and combatants abducted five Liberian aid workers from the camp before releasing them two months later.

The destruction of Sinje pushed Sierra Leonean refugees in two directions: westward back to Sierra Leone, and eastward to four remaining refugee camps on the outskirts of Monrovia. By mid-year, about 10,000 refugees lived in VOA camp, some 5,000 resided in Samukai camp, more than 3,000 occupied Zuannah camp, and 2,000 or more lived in Banjor camp.

A USCR site visit to Liberia in July concluded that the country's four remaining refugee camps were potential targets for additional attacks, given Liberian combatants' repeated tactic of attacking and looting sites housing uprooted people.

USCR urged UNHCR to redouble its efforts to persuade Sierra Leonean refugees to repatriate voluntarily for their own safety.

"The security threat that Sierra Leonean refugees face in Liberia is more dangerous than the protection and integration problems awaiting them in Sierra Leone," USCR asserted. UNHCR agreed that "Sierra Leonean refugees remain at risk of being uprooted from camps" by violence on the outskirts of Monrovia.

Most refugees living in the camps, however, declined offers of repatriation assistance and chose to remain in Liberia because of business and educational opportunities there.

Most of the estimated 30,000 refugees who repatriated to Sierra Leone during 2002 did so in the first half of the year, before or immediately after the attack on Sinje camp. Some traveled in organized repatriation convoys or aboard boats chartered by UNHCR. Others repatriated on foot without assistance.

The 20,000 who remained in refugee camps at year's end received regular food distributions. Refugee families farmed about 110 acres (45 hectares) of land near their camps, and aid workers distributed seeds and tools as needed.

Health clinics provided vaccinations and medicines for basic illnesses. Malaria and sexually transmitted diseases remained common among the refugee population and local residents.

More than 5,000 students attended refugee schools that were generally superior to schools available in Sierra Leone. Despite the readily available humanitarian assistance, many refugees struggled to support themselves in Liberia's poor economy.

"The employment prospects for refugees in Liberia are negligible," UNHCR reported. Many refugees feared that conditions in Sierra Leone were even worse, however.

Government security personnel continued to harass and intimidate some refugees, and petty theft in refugee camps remained a problem. Unarmed uniformed guards patrolled camps in an effort to improve security. UNHCR conducted training sessions for government security personnel and border officials in hopes of curtailing official harassment of refugees.

A report by Save the Children Federation/United Kingdom and UNHCR consultants in February charged that many refugees in West Africa suffered sexual exploitation at the hands of relief workers, security personnel, and refugee leaders.

In Liberia, authorities formally charged at least three persons of sexually exploiting refugees.

In response to the sexual exploitation scandal, government officials and virtually all humanitarian aid workers in Liberia participated in workshops to review proper standards of conduct.

Relief organizations attempted to strengthen their ability to monitor food distributions, and employed more women to monitor the conduct of mostly male teachers at refugee schools. Relief groups altered sanitation facilities at some camps to improve privacy and protection for females.

Some relief workers privately criticized the steps as inadequate to protect female refugees from exploitation and called for more vigorous prosecution of offenders. The impact of the reforms remained uncertain at year's end.

Refugees from Côte d'Ivoire

An estimated 20,000 Ivorian refugees fled into remote border areas of eastern Liberia in late 2002 to escape an eruption of civil war in their country. Several thousand immigrant workers from Burkina Faso and other countries, who had lived in Côte d'Ivoire, also fled to Liberia.

The new arrivals congregated at overcrowded border villages, where aid workers rushed to deliver food, water, and medical care while constructing temporary transit camps. UNHCR shipped 25,000 blankets, thousands of cooking utensils, and material for makeshift tents into Liberia for distribution to the new refugees.

As the year ended, UNHCR officials were reluctant to establish long-term camps for the refugee population because of uncertainty about the duration of the emergency, as well as concerns about difficult logistics and poor security in Liberia's border area.