OCHA Situation Report No. 72
Liberia: IDP Return
22 June 2006


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

LOOKING BACK AT THE RETURN PROCESS: 18 MONTHS LATER

1. The IDP Return Process in Brief

The Liberian IDP return and reintegration process commenced on 8 
November 2004 after the counties of return were declared "ready to 
receive" returnees. At the start of the process, there were 314,095 IDPs 
in 35 formal camps and spontaneous settlements. The process which was 
originally planned to take three years has been completed within 18 
months. This was largely due to the intense desire of the IDPs in the 
various camps to go home. The humanitarian community led by UNHCR, WFP 
and IOM had to put in place the necessary logistics so as to be able to 
meet the desire of the IDPs. On April 20, 2006 the Vice President of 
Liberia declared the IDP return process completed in Salala which was 
one of the last camps to be assisted. At the end of the process, 321,745 
This includes 9,732 Liberian refugees who returned from Sierra Leone but 
could not go to their home counties because those counties were not yet 
declared as "ready to receive". This group was repatriated from the 
camps during the IDP repatriation process, hence included in the overall 
figure IDPs were provided with the humanitarian return assistance 
composed of food, NFI and transportation grant. Over 272,000 or 80% of 
this number has collected their second food ration from WFP as of 10 
May, 2006. This second ration is given in the areas of return, clearly 
indicating that these people have returned to their home Counties. The 
IDP return process was declared completed by the Government of Liberia 
on 20 April 2006.

2. Protection monitoring during and after return

The IDP Unit field staff have been conducting protection monitoring in 
both the IDP camps and in the return areas since the beginning of the 
return process. This is to ensure that the process progressed in a safe 
and dignified manner for the IDPs. In all there were five International 
Field Protection staff as well as 15 National staff responsible for 
protection monitoring. The International staff were mainly based in the 
areas of high return where they monitored the conditions under which the 
IDP returnees were returning and reintegrating into. There were many 
instances where the Unit's staff provided direct protection support and 
also reported protection issues which were later followed up and 
addressed.

After the completion of the return process in the camps, the IDP Unit 
staff concentrated their attention on monitoring in the return areas. 
During the last two months more than 40 communities in five counties 
were visited. The picture that has emerged from all these returnee 
community monitoring is quite encouraging. On the whole, the security 
situation was reported to be calm in almost all the communities visited. 
The vast majority of the returnees interviewed reported being happy to 
be back home and were thankful to all those who made their repatriation 
possible. It was also observed that there are several UN agencies and 
NGOs such as UNHCR, UNICEF, ICRC, CCF etc. providing various services in 
some of the communities.

Nevertheless several gaps in the provision of social amenities were also 
reported in most of the communities visited. Major concerns raised 
include: lack of WATSAN, health and educational facilities, lack of 
shelter materials, lack of seed rice, and lack of access roads and 
broken bridges etc.

3. Camp Closure Assessment

As reported in the previous SITREPS, the IDP consultative Forum 
commissioned a camp closure assessment exercise in April 2006. The 
exercise which was spearheaded by UNHCR and involved the IDP Unit staff 
was completed in May. The report was presented to ICF on June 16, 2006 
and was subsequently endorsed to be published soon. Briefly the main 
findings indicate that there are about 28,000 people still living in the 
previous IDP camps. Out of this figure only 16,000 or 5% were part of 
the original 314,095 IDPs who were living in the camps at the beginning 
of the repatriation process. The other 12,000 were individuals whose 
name were deleted from the WFP log or were never registered. Concerning 
protection issues, the report mentioned theft and domestic violence as 
the main issues of concern. Lack of basic facilities including WATSAN 
facilities was also reported. The environmental degradation to the land 
as a result of IDP stay was also underscored in the report. Several 
recommendations to address the various concerns were made for 
implementation.

4. The Process at a Glance

|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|Duration of Return     |8 November, 2004 - 30 March, 2006   |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|Numbers Returned       |321,747                             |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|Key Players            |                                    |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|Agency                 |Contribution                        |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|Government authorities |1. Overall policy and coordination  |
|(LRRRC)                |                                    |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|WFP                    |1. Food items for 4 months          |
|                       |2. Seconded 3 logistics staff to IDP|
|                       |Return Implementing Unit from       |
|                       |January to December 2005            |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|UNHCR                  |1. Non Food Items                   |
|                       |2. Transportation Grant             |
|                       |3. Hired 15 National staff through  |
|                       |ACI/UNDP                            |
|                       |4. Seconded five International staff|
|                       |through NRC Surge capacity to IDP   |
|                       |Return Implementing Unit            |
|                       |5. Seconded two staff from the      |
|                       |Branch Office                       |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|
|IOM                    |1. Initial transport for IDPs from  |
|                       |the camps to their homes (Nov 2004 -|
|                       |March 2005)                         |
|                       |2. Registration and transport of    |
|                       |vulnerable IDPs (March 2005 -       |
|                       |January 2006)                       |
|-----------------------+------------------------------------|

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