PESHAWAR, July 25: A Liberian has been languishing in the Peshawar central prison for over a year as he has no legal documents to justify his stay in the country.

The prisoner, Abiodun Johnson, is not willing to go back to Liberia due to the ongoing civil war there.

However, he has not been awarded the refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) due to which he could no longer live here either.

He had been issued a temporary registration letter which expired last year, and soon he was arrested by police and put behind the bars. He was sentenced to one month imprisonment by a local court for overstay in Pakistan.

Now one year has passed since the completion of that one month, but neither he was released nor the government was required funds to deport him to Liberia.

Mr Johnson claimed that his case was fit for getting the status of a refugee, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was not supporting him.

It was evident that the situation in Liberia was alarming and ordinary citizens were not safe there, he added.

He told Dawn that he had also sent various applications to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, but to no avail. He has been suffering from different diseases, including some eye ailment and urinary tract infection.

In a fresh application to the UNHCR, the Liberian stated that he would face imminent dangers at the hands of President Charles Taylor in Liberia.

Mr Johnson informed that his earlier application was rejected in October 2001, by the UN body.

He has asked the UNHCR authorities to reconsider his case and issue him a temporary registration letter so that he could come out of prison.