the law. The nationality status of those who have returned to Mauritania, where policies of discrimination against black Africans continue, may be more precarious.201 Those Mauritanians who took shelter in Mali, in that country’s south western Kayes region, also retain refugee status, but with no long-term solution in sight. 4.4.2. The “red-coded” former Liberian refugees Some 750,000 Liberians fled their homes during the civil war to find shelter elsewhere in Liberia or out of the country. Voluntary repatriation to Liberia was launched in 2004, and by 2012 UNHCR had helped almost 135,000 people return. Many thousands of others had gone back to Liberia on their own accord. However, almost 67,000 Liberian refugees were still registered at that time with UNHCR in nine West African countries, with the largest populations in Côte d'Ivoire (23,650), Ghana (11,295), Guinea (9,972), and Sierra Leone (8,046). On 13 January 2012 UNHCR recommended to cease the status of Liberian refugees who had fled between 1989 and 2003; the cessation became effective on 30 June 2012.202 Refugees whose situation fell under the scope of the cessation clause had the possibility to opt for local integration in the country of asylum or voluntary repatriation to Liberia. Individuals invoking a need for continued protection could alternatively apply for exemption. National eligibility commissions made available an exemption procedure to assess exemption requests. As of 31 December 2012, approximately 80% of registered refugees (46,854 individuals) had chosen between one of the three options: 29,406 refugees opted for voluntary repatriation (63%), 10,806 local integration (23%) and 6,172 applied for exemption (13%).203 In the case of those who opted for repatriation or local integration, UNHCR negotiated with the government of Liberia to issue either travel documents allowing the former to return home, or Liberian passports on the basis of which the latter could obtain a residence permit in the country of asylum as a national of another ECOWAS state.204 The Liberian government sent vetting missions to the various countries to verify the Liberian citizenship of those seeking these documents. Although the process was still incomplete as of mid-2014, it seemed, from lists submitted to UNHCR, that just under 10 percent of the original applicants for Liberian passports (around 900 individuals) who had been registered as refugees for decades by UNHCR and mostly claimed birth in Liberia of parents also born there, had been rejected as non-Liberian by the vetting missions (coded red on the lists), but on very unclear criteria. Following the realisation that many Liberians had fled the country during the civil war but had never sought refugee status with UNHCR, IOM facilitated a similar process for Liberian nationals who sought repatriation or documentation enabling them to stay in the country where they now lived. This process suffered from some of the same problems – notably that it clearly didn’t reach some of those 201 Interviews with Senegalese officials, representatives of the Mauritanian refugee community, and human rights activists, Dakar, May 2014. 202 “Protracted refugee situations in Liberia and Angola to finally end”, UNHCR 29 June 2012. 203 Information from UNHCR, June 2014. 204 Strangely, therefore, the criteria for determination of nationality were more stringent for those seeking local integration outside Liberia (who required a passport) than for those seeking to return home (on the basis of a simple one-way travel document). 61