31 January 2008
Administrative buildings, health centres, water outlets, schools and other basic social services facilities at two camps run by the United Nations refugee agency in Guinea have been handed over to the Government now that most of the residents there have returned to their home countries.
"The infrastructures constitute real opportunities for the population and local authorities, who will use them for the common good," said Dillah Doumaye, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representative in Guinea.
The two camps in south-eastern Guinea, which hosted tens of thousands of refugees from Liberia between 1995 and 2007, were handed over to the Government as part of a continuing UNHCR programme aimed at easing the integration of refugees remaining in the country since the end of the conflict in Liberia. Some 23,000 refugees continue to live in Guinea, including 8,000 Liberians in the two camps.
UNHCR said it is working to facilitate the local integration of these refugees through community-based projects.
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