8,000 Liberian refugees return home

Page 47: November 6, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ABOUT 8,000 Liberian refugees in Ghana have so far returned home on the voluntary repatriation exercise initiated in April this year under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
They were made up of 3,728 males and 4,221 females with 15,000 more refugees waiting to be repatriated under the programme.
Out of those repatriated, 195 went in April, 924 in May, 1,475 in July, 2,266 in August, 1,281 in September and 485 in October, 2008.
The Interior Minister, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, disclosed this to the Daily Graphic after the Tripartite Committee for the Voluntary Repatriation of Liberian Refugees in Ghana had issued a joint statement on the status of the exercise in Accra .
It was the outcome of a Third meeting of the Tripartite Committee for the voluntary repatriation of Liberian refugees in Ghana.
In the statement, the committee expressed their commitment to supporting the voluntary repatriation of Liberian refugees from Ghana to Liberia until March, 31, 2009.
It said a verification exercise would be conducted in mid-January, 2009, to ascertain the number of Liberian refugees in Ghana, determine those with Ghanaian family links, update their profile, and determine refugees' intentions to either return to Liberia or remain in Ghana.
"Following the verification exercise, the Government of Ghana and the UNHCR are encouraged to conduct an information campaign to inform the Liberian refugees opting to remain in Ghana of processes and procedures," it added.
In view of the challenges confronting the carting of their belongings and the nature of the bad road from Cote d’Ivoire to Liberia, the committee agreed to identify a sea-worthy vessel to use in addition to already existing modes of transportation.
"The government of Liberia will continue to make efforts towards creating an enabling environment to receive returnees, through development initiatives as part of the Poverty Reduction Strategy," it stated.
The committee stressed that reintegration opportunities, particularly in the area of skills training, micro-grants and micro-finance, would be made available to returnees who fulfil the criteria set by those programmes.
It acknowledged Ghana’s plans to relocate refugees from Buduburam to other parts of Ghana upon completion of the organised voluntary repatriation, stressing that "their status will be in accordance with national and regional instruments in force in Ghana".
Dr Addo-Kufuor said it was not the intention of the government to "push" the refugees out of the country but rather to pave the way for de-camping Buduburam township as a refugee camp to revert to its status as an ordinary Ghanaian town.
He said any Liberian who chose to stay in Ghana was welcome.
He explained that the verification exercise became necessary following the arrival of some refugees from Cote d’Ivoire.