Nigeria: 17 Years After, Farewell to Oru Camp Refugees

This Day (Lagos)

28 June 2007
Posted to the web 29 June 2007

Oke Epia
Lagos

From July 1, refugees hitherto sheltered in the comfort zone of the Oru camp will have to face the challenges of a new lifestyle either in Nigeria or in their home countries where peace and nomalcy have returned after the civil war years that plagued Sierra Leone and Liberia. Oke Epia writes

An abrupt and rude rupture of life at home occasioned the first transition. Now, as peace and security return to their homestead in the earstwhile strife-ravaged states, a second transition inevitably beckons.


Before the 4,158 refugees who are mostly Liberians and Sierra Leoneans encamped at the Oru boarding facility, Ijebu North local government council of Ogun State, lays a choice of either a return home or a phased integration into the Nigerian society that has hosted them these past 17 years. According to the executive summary of the Joint Project (2007-2009) Document on the refugee situation in Nigeria, "Voluntary repatriation of refugees to their country of origin is the most desirable durable solution to refugee situation worldwide. But in cases where voluntary repatriation (and also resettlement to third country) is not a desirable solution, local integration may be implemented as durable solution in order to end prostrated refugee situation." The document estimates that after voluntary repatriation, some 3000 refugees (of this number, 2500 are Liberians) will need local integration outside the Oru camp.

This option is being supervised, managed, and actualized under the multipartite auspices of the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the individual governments of the Republic of Liberia and Sierra Leone respectively, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

It behoves these entities to attenuate as much as possible, the pains, strains and stress of this otherwise welcome transition for these West African neighbours who had been transmuted by the whiz of gunpowder from being bona fide citizens of their countries to asylum seekers initially and then refugees subsequently. The imminent progression from refugee status to another realm of recognition as ECOWAS citizens is the burden this multipartite arrangement defined in an agreement, must discharge.

The agreement aims to midwife this transition through the concept of Local Integration (LI) which, in the provisions of UNHCR's Executive Committee Conclusion No. 104 (LVI-2005), is "a dynamic and multi-faceted two-way process which requires efforts by all parties, including a preparedness on the part of refugees to adapt to the host society without having to forgo their own cultural identity, and a corresponding readiness on the part of host communities and public institutions to welcome refugees and to meet the needs of a diverse population."

To achieve this goal, the document recognizes that the process "needs to be undertaken in a manner that sustains the viability of local communities affected by the presence of refugees and that a failure to do so may result in an unreasonable burden being placed on host countries." Under local integration, the refugees become entitled to a set of legal, economic and socio-cultural rights commensurate with those enjoyed by Nigerians and are shielded from any discrimination.

The process takes the following procedures: first of all, the governments of Liberia and Sierra Leone undertakes the issuance of passports to their respective citizens; and secondly, the Federal Government of Nigeria agrees to issue a five-year residence permit (including the right to work) which may be revoked if the holder becomes inadmissible under Nigeria immigration law but renewable after the initial period. By the agreement, ECOWAS facilitates the issuance of the permits; UNCHR picks the bills incurred in the process; and a UN Country Team (comprising the refugee commission itself) monitors the entire process to ensure compliance with the terms of the agreement and other ancillary issues.

But given the June 30 deadline for the winding up of the Oru camp, it is envisaged that this transition process will require a stopgap legal framework that will take care of the status of the occupants of the camp, and indeed, other legally recognized refugees in Nigeria after the expiration of that date. This is where the concept of ECOWAS citizenship comes in, explained Mr. Alphonse Malanda, UNHCR Representative for Nigeria and ECOWAS, in an interaction with reporters.

According to him, to avert a situation where the refugees will just be floating around with doubtful legal status, they will be granted community citizenship for an initial 19 days (and renewable afterwards) while the legal process for local integration is being carried out. ECOWAS Protocol A/P.3/5/82 relating to the definition of community citizen defines clearly the concept of community citizenship. The emphasis is that community citizenship precludes the adoption of any other nationality by anyone seeking the status. Article 1 (1a) of the protocol for instance, states that an ECOWAS citizen is "any person who is a national by descent of a Member State and is not a national of any non-Member State of the Community. This protocol is somewhat hinged on the earlier one on free movement of persons, right of residence and establishment within the sub-region. This latter instrument guarantees the right to residence and involvement in economic activities of ECOWAS citizens as outlined.

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