Nearly three hundred Liberian refugees in Nigeria flew home on Monday, October 28, 2013, on two chartered Arik Air flights from the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos under the sponsorship of the Government of Japan and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Excited about finally returning home, many had lived at the Oru Refugee Camp, Ijebu-Ode, in Southwestern Nigerian State of Ogun since the outbreak of the Liberian civil war in 1990. The IOM classified them as stranded Liberian migrants who had not benefitted from UNHCR's coverage.

Weeks before their departure, the Embassy of Liberia in Abuja and the IOM screened the migrants and supervised their medical checkup and vaccination at the Oru Camp.

Upon arrival in Liberia, each migrant received US$275.00 from the IOM: $200 as reintegration package and $75.00 for local transportation.

The migrants were full of praises for the Governments of Liberia and Japan for making the trip home possible. Most of them have made plans to establish small businesses with their resettlement money.

Mamie Attia, a single mother with four children who acquired catering skills in Nigeria,plans to open a restaurant: "my children father passed away... I am now the mother and father and it's not easy on me. If not government brought the opportunity I don't know how I would have gone home.I will open my restaurant with the money and send my children to school."

Another migrant, Fatu Lamadine, described life as a refugee as "sometimes good sometimes bad". Fatu, who returned home after living for six years in Nigeria, was also grateful to the Government of Liberia for the repatriation exercise.

Hmmm this is good despite all the time spent here.....afterall there is no place like home!