It would be recalled that in 1989/90 when the Liberian War brokeout, Ghana received thousands of refugees after almost every country on the West Coast of Africa had rejected them. However, after 18 years of stay in Ghana a group of refugees and unregistered librarian nationals went on demonstration on account that they did not wish to integrate into the Ghanaian society and will resist every attempt to integrate them. In addition they wish to be resettled in the Western community. Above all, they wanted each Liberian refugee opting to voluntarily repatriate to be paid one thousand US dollars.
This development has generated some controversy in the country. For this reason, the Minister of the Interior, Mr Kamena Batels, took the pain to underscore the facts of the issue during media encounter this week.
The 1992 Constitution of Ghana in Article 12 ( 2) states that “Every person in Ghana, whatsoever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human right and freedom of the individual contained in this chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of other and for the public’s interest.”
Even though everybody has the right to demonstrate, there is also a public order law which stipulates the procedure one must follow to embark on demonstration.
The rancor between the refugees and the Ghanaian government is now clear in that the government has not decided to integrate them nor does it have any intension to do so.
Secondly, the issue of resettlement is within the domain of the Government or United Nations High commission for refugees (UNHCR) as offers of resettlement are made by a recipient country to UNHCR .
Furthermore, the US Embassy in Ghana repeated the position of the US government that it has stop resettlements for Liberians and that those joining their families in the US who did not apply before 30 September 2006 will not be considered. On the issue of the payment of One Thousand US dollars, the UNHCR made it clear that it can not pay that amount.
One may ask when a refugee ceases to be a refugee according to the 1969 OAU convention. Article 1 , 4( e) states that the “convention shall cease to apply to any refugee if” : he can no longer because of the circumstances in connection with which he was recognised as a refugee has ceased to exist , continue to refuse to avail himself of the protection of the country of his nationality
With the stabilised peace that Liberia is now having, it would not be far fetched to say concerted efforts ought to be made to resolve the Liberian refugee issue so that they could return to their home land and rebuild the nation.
As usual, after the presentation, journalists who thronged the Ministry of Information and National Orientation’s conference hall were so eager to ask thorny questions.
A journalist asked whether the ex-combatants among the refugees are Liberians. In response Mr Bartels said some are Liberians.
Another journalist wanted to know what will happen to some of the Liberians who have children with Ghanaians. The Minister responded that they have the right to apply to stay in Ghana. He added that the laws give an immigrant 90 days to stay in the country and after that the person have to apply to enable him explains why he is in the country.
One journalist asked where were those Human Rights activists who have threatened to take the Interior minister to Court when the refugees were relocated. Mr Bartels said the laws of the land mandates him to declare any part of the country as refugee camp
Again, a journalist asked whether refugees have the right to demonstrate.
The response was “yes” from the Minister emphasising that they ought to follow the right procedures. He added that any demonstration that takes place in the country must go through the right channels.
Furthermore, how soon does the government want the refugees to leave the country, a journalist asked. The Minister assured Ghanaians that dialogues are ongoing and very soon amicable solutions would be reached before they go back.
Posted: 03/04/08