The Ghana Refugee Board should have a very good reason for delaying the process for Ivorian Asylum seekers to be formally registered as refugees. None of the over six thousand people who have fled from Ivory Coast into Ghana have been formally registered as refugees. This is an underlying issue which could determine the fate of people living in the Ampain Refugee Camp here in the Western Region.
The Western Regional Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization, Japheth Baidoo...
''Even we NADMO we are worried. When we ask the authorities it appears there should be more diplomatic discussions''
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has not offered people living here equal privileges under international humanitarian needs. The UNHCR, Ghana Refugee Board, Catholic Secretariat, National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) and other agencies had been supportive in providing food and other social amenities to the asylum seekers. But this is not with approval from their mother agencies. To do this the asylum seekers must be given refugee status first. Ghanaian security agencies had been on high alert and averted unnecessary infiltration of security personnel from the Ivory Coast.
The Ghana Health Service is providing health services to those who came with various ailments with the support of the mobile clinic made available by the Ellembelle District Assembly. But how sustainable and dependable are these in case the asylum seekers are staying longer? Already the District Chief Executive of Elembelle, Daniel Kermanbetu Eshun is calling for the return of the Mobile Clinic to the district since its absence is putting a heavy pressure on health delivery in the district.
The Western Regional Police Commander DCOP Ransford Mosses Ninson, has also complained about the pressure on the Western police command since the crisis begun. Even as their numbers keeps increasing by the day the fate of the Ivorian Asylum Seekers is not yet determined. With an experience of Liberian refugees demonstrating at the Budumburam Refugee Camp in the Central Region to demand their rights, the Ghanaian authorities will have to be more careful having them this time round.
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