URGENT APPEAL FOR ASYLUM FOR LIBERIAN REFUGEES

Press Release
REF/1139

URGENT APPEAL FOR ASYLUM FOR LIBERIAN REFUGEES

GENEVA, 13 May (UNHCR) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees made an urgent plea today to west African countries to keep their doors open to thousands of Liberian refugees fleeing fighting in Monrovia.

High Commissioner Sadako Ogata specifically mentioned the Nigerian freighter Bulk Challenge with some 3,000 passengers aboard and the Victory Reefer with 700 people off Sierra Leone.

The Bulk Challenge was still looking for a port that would accept its passengers after they were refused disembarkation in Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. The people aboard the Victory Reefer have not been allowed to disembark in Sierra Leone.

Mrs. Ogata said she was greatly concerned about the situation of the people aboard those vessels. "They have been at sea for some days now", she said". "The situation has become desperate. Unless the door is opened to them, a lot of people many of them women and children, may die."

The High Commissioner added that while she understood the security concerns and preoccupations of the governments in the region, she ardently appealed to their compassion for those desperate people seeking refuge.

She said UNHCR was prepared to help the countries that would grant asylum to the Liberians in full compliance with internationally accepted humanitarian standards. "It would be contrary to basic international commitments to keep these people in the current limbo", she said.

In spite of repeated interventions by UNHCR and others, passengers of the Bulk Challenge and the Victory Reefer have not thus far been allowed to disembark.

Mrs. Ogata, who recently visited west Africa, referred with appreciation to the hospitality countries in the region had shown to the Liberian refugees, allowing then to live side-by-side with the local people. She urged them to continue with their tradition of generosity.

There are reportedly more than 150,000 Liberian refugees in West Africa, including 410,000 in Guinea, 305,000 in Cote d'Ivoire, 15,000 in Ghana, 4,700 in Sierra Leone and 4,000 in Nigeria. * *** *