By Lewis S Teh
The Government of Liberia through the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) announces plans to dispatch a high-level delegation to Ghana to rescue struggling Liberian refugees on the Budubura Camp.
Addressing a news conference in Monrovia, the executive director of the LRRRC Rev. Festus Logan reveals the institution received communication from Liberians residing in the camp in Ghana about alleged maltreatment meted against them, so some of them have opted to return to home.
“We’re having serious problem and complaint from our citizens living on the refugee camp in Ghana that police brutality has increased”, director Logan notes.
According to him, he has watched videos on social media, demonstrating police brutality, something, he says prompted Liberians there to call on the Government of Liberia through the Office of President George Weah to make a swift intervention in the situation.
He says the LRRRC has presented a proposal to President Weah that the commission wants to dispatch a delegation to Ghana and meet the Ghanaian refugee board and hold a discussion with them.
“We are aware that about 350 Liberian citizens have been granted refugee status in Ghana, but our visit is to ask the Ghanaian refugees board what happened to the repatriation process, and we will further be meeting with the victims to inquire from them and encourage them to return, because there’s nowhere like home”, Rev. Logan adds.
He says the LRRRC intends to have a multi-sectoral meeting with line ministries and agencies to get fully prepared following its return from Ghana, saying, “Because it’s our understanding that some of the refugees are wanting to return, for us to set the ground for their reintegration into society.”
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However, the LRRRC Boss reminds that according to UN Convention, it is the right of a refugee to stay in a country and seek asylum to stay in that country or sign to return to their respective home countries, something, he terms as local integration.
He says it is not a good thing to force refugees to leave a particular country, noting that it happened to Sierra Leoneans, and Ivoirians in Liberia, they were granted asylum, work permits, jobs, and that should happen to any country that signed up to UN Conventions, so those are discussions the Liberian delegation will be holding with her Ghanaian counterparts in Ghana.
“We have the UNHCR and other partners here, we will ask them what happened to our citizens in Ghana”, Rev. Logan maintains.
Hundreds, if not thousands of Liberians chose to stay in Ghana’s Budubura Camp, years after the UNHCR ended voluntary repatriation of Liberian refugees.https://thenewdawnliberia.com/lrrrc-concludes-persons-of-concern-verification/ Editing by Jonathan Browne
