US ends special status for SLeone refugees, extends Burundi, Sudan programs
WASHINGTON, Sep 3 (AFP) — The United States announced the termination of a program that gave special status to refugees from Sierra Leone, saying conditions in the country had improved to the extent it was now safe for them to return.
At the same time, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he was extending the so-called “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) program for refugees from Burundi and Sudan because those nations remain at war.
After consulting with the State Department, Ridge said he had determined that Sierra Leone no longer met the criteria for the TPS program because the country’s long-running civil war is over.
“The armed conflict that provided the basis for the Sierra Leone TPS designation is over,” he said in a notice published in the Federal Register.
“There is not an ongoing armed conflict within Sierra Leone that would pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning aliens who are nationals of Sierra Leone,” Ridge said.
His decision means the estimated 2,700 Sierra Leone nationals who are now covered by the program must either leave the United States by May 3, 2004 or make arrangements to stay under another US immigration status.
TPS allows citizens of designated countries to live and work in the United States temporarily if they are unable to return home due to conflict, environmental disasters or other extraordinary and temporary conditions.
Apart from Sierra Leone, the other countries whose citizens are eligible for the program are Burundi, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Liberia, Montserrat, Somalia and Sudan.
The Burundi and Sudan programs had been due to expire in November, but in separate notices also published in the Federal Register, Ridge extended them for one year.
Despite some improvements in the situations in both countries, he said returning would “pose a serious threat to the personal safety of returning nationals” to Burundi and Sudan.
About 520 Sudanese nationals and 30 citizens of Burundi are now covered by the TPS program, according to Ridge.