The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Union, and the government of Liberia have provided low cost housing units for Ivorian refugees in the country.
Out of the 93 housing units, 83 units were implemented by UNHCR in collaboration with the Liberian government through the African Initiative for Reconstruction and Development (AIRD).
Ten other units were constructed with support from the EU Spotlight Initiative through the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) and Plan International Liberia.
The remaining 15 are expected to be built as part of the support from the EU Spotlight Initiative and will be implemented by UNFPA and Plan International.
The land was donated by residents of the counties following the intervention of the government through the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and resettlement Commission (LRRRC).
President George Weah thanked UNHCR and the EU for the support to the refugees and pledged his government and its people’s continued generosity towards the refuges.
Responding to the request made by UNHCR Country Representative, Roseline Okoro, calling for the waiver of integration documentation fees including resident permit and naturalization, Weah said relevant agencies of government will review the request for a solution that will be in the interest of both refugees and the government.
‘We should live in peace. If anyone that you know tells you anything order than peace, you should inform the local government’, he said.
‘I remember when we were refugees in Ivory Coast…what kept us there was because we were civil.
‘We did not interfere with the governance of the state or try to destabilise the place; and I am sure that is why we spent that long time and up to now so many Liberians have now integrated’.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the LRRRC, Festus Logan, said that the construction of the low-cost durable housing units for the refugees and host community was part of the first ever local integration roadmap developed in 2018 by the LRRRC.
Logan said the roadmap was intended to construct housing units in Bahn and the transformed PTP local integration community in Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County.
Source: Front Page Online
Photo source: Front Page Online
