Communicating Justice

Monrovia, Liberia, September 2008 -- According to officials of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, there are over 3,000 Sierra Leonean refugees still living in Liberia, despite the end of civil war in their homeland.

Last June, the agency announced that, as of 31 December, Sierra Leoneans who fled their country in the 1990s will no longer be considered refugees, since it considers that the root causes of the refugee problem in Sierra Leone no longer exist.

The refugees reside in five different camps around the country. One of these is the VOA Camp, near the capital Monrovia, which is currently home to over one thousand Sierra Leonean refugees.

Macdonald Metzger of UNMIL Radio and Olive Thomas of Star Radio went to the VOA camp to find out about conditions there. They report deplorable conditions, with only nine pit latrines and makeshift bathrooms.

Refugees at the VOA camp claimed that they feel abandoned by the UNHCR in Liberia and  its implementing partners, the Christian Children’s Fund and the Liberian Repatriation and Reintegration Commission.

Click here to listen to this special feature by Macdonald Metzger and Olive Thomas

Macdonald Metzger interviewing a Sierra Leonean
refugee at the VOA camp near Monrovia, Liberia.
September 2008. Photo © Claire Ziwa. BBC WST

Olive Thomas interviewing children at the VOA camp
near Monrovia, Liberia. September 2008.
Photo © Claire Ziwa, BBC WST

This report was selected as best radio feature produced during the Communicating Justice follow-up training in Monrovia in September 2008.