A Road to Nowhere? The Dilemma of the Liberian Refugee in Ghana

A Road to Nowhere? The Dilemma of the Liberian Refugee in Ghana

After more than two decades of living as refugees in Ghana, many Liberians has blatantly refused to return back home. Their refusal to go home, even after two successive elections in the post war nation, comes in the wake of the ongoing UNHCR final two solutions to repatriate and integrate Liberian Refugees on the Buduram Refugee Camp, Goama District.

According to UNHCR special release, as of July 1^st, 2012, Liberians refugees residing outside of the country would no longer be considered as refugees. Known as the cessation clause this sudden move, according to UNHCR is in keeping with Article 1C of the 1951 Geneva Convention that a refugee’s status can be revoke after UNHCR have observed carefully that conditions that caused a refugee to seek international protection no longer exist at home; or that a refugee can decide to integrate in country of host.

From 1990 up until late 2000 more than two hundred thousand Liberians fled the country’s 14 years devastating civil war- one of Africa’s bloodiest. They traveled in search of refuge into the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and as far as Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria.

 And between 1991 and 2000 more than two thousand Liberian refugees were resettled from the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Ghana, and Senegal to the United States and other countries under the UNHCR’s P3 program.  Also, it P1 program for political asylum seekers was affective as earlier as the 1990 when the government and the rebels extended punitive measures to family members of each respective enemy.

With an ominous cloud of atrocities and grave human right violations hanging over the nation then, many Liberian saw these programs as the easy means of getting into a land of greener pastures. In the early days, the P3 program that united refugees to family members oversea attracted thousands of Liberians who had family members in the United States, and led to a crisscross movement of Liberian refugees in search of resettlement programs. 

Because Ghana was one of the most common exit points then, many went in and settled on the already established Buduburam refugee camp in hope of being resettled to the United States.

The Buduburam camp was established by a hand full of Liberian refugees in the early 1990. But by 2000 more than fifty thousand Liberian refugees had occupied the camp; most fled from home in the Bob Challenge ship during the 1996 battle of the factions in Monrovia. The dusty refugees’ settlement in Gomoa, known as the land of snakes, was rapidly turned into a bustling refugee’s town, where they enjoyed the luxury of current and UN supplied water.  

But on August 29, 2006 the United States’ States Department issued a statement to end its large scale resettlement program, and to support UNHCR mandate to voluntarily repatriate Liberian refugees.  Then on October 29, 2008 US’ State Department release another statement to temporally close the P3 family reunion element of the resettlement program. According to the release the program was halted because it was discovered that 75% of the cases filed were unauthentic due to DNA testing that proved that many family members were not as related as indicated in their avadavat. Thus the mass exodus was seized, leaving most Liberian refugees, with the hope to travel abroad, in a state of limbo.

However, between 2006 -2010, UNHCR reported to have successfully repatriated more than one hundred thousand Liberian refugees from almost every country in Africa where they had fled for refuge. Though the troubling statistic out there shows that many Liberian have refused to go back home until they are sure of total peace. Among this number, more than 10,000 Liberian refugees in Ghana are refusing to go back home until they can be resettle. And as the time draws nearer for the expiration of their refugees’ status, UNHCR decision to invoke the cessation clause on June 30, 2012 remained fixed.

According to UNHCR they have incessantly notified Liberian refugees that continued to reside outside the country, even after the first successful election, about the approach of the cessation clause. Now with the successful conduct of the second election, and with international approvals of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s led government, they are left with no alternative but to implement their only two solutions for refugees- repatriate back home or integrate in the country of host- before the cassation clause runs out on June 30, 2012.

Yet many Liberian remained daring as they claimed of being dumped by their host to go back home only to give their resettlement benefits to Ghanians.

“I have been to verification four different times, and told UN that I can’t go back home, so for them to say there’s no resettlement program, it is a joke,” cried one annoyed refugee woman who had resided on the camp for more than 15 years with four children.

Another single male in his fifty complained, “The money given to us who want to go back home by UN is too small to help us rebuild our lives in Liberia.”

But the most senior one advice sternly, “There’s a resettlement package, my people, but UN wants most people to go home, so we the few who stay can go to the Place. So keep courage and let’s not be stupid to say we want to go back or stay here, your here?”

But earlier this year, in a press interview with journalists, UNHCR Public Information Officer, Mr. Sulaiman Momodu, explained that, “resettlement is no longer a solution.” In a very serious note of warning he’d added, “The resettlement programs for Liberian refugees are closed, and there will be no new ones. If you wait for resettlement, you will lose time and miss the opportunity to be assisted with repatriation or local integration”.

As the Last week for the deadline for the ongoing process of registering for repatriation and integration expired by March 30, and many Liberian refugees still not yet decided whether to go back home or stay for their resettlement, UNHCR has again  embarked upon a campaign to encourage Liberian to consider one of the two available solutions. On Monday, March 26, a UNHCR high power delegation visited the camp to assess the slow process of the registration. They again warned Liberians to take advantage of the programs as any decision otherwise could lead to a serious immigration problem for them. The new expiration date for registration has now been extended to give refugee the last chance to decide.

Yet most Liberian interviewed remained unmoved by the slow and tedious process in hope of being the last on the ground to get their resettlement benefit.

When asked why many don’t want to go back home now that peace had return, another pioneer of the settlement said sadly : “We can’t go back home, because there’s no current and water yet, and we have heard that the Liberian government have no programs to assist refugees to built their lives, so we want the UNHCR to resettle us.”

But as the date of the cessation clause draws nearer, and UNHCR increment of the repatriation benefits from $150.00 to $350.00 with an added $75.00 in Liberia, many Liberian refugees are still caught up in the state of dilemma, wondering whether to stay and get their resettlement or to go back home and start life all over.