GHANA REFUGEE ROUNDUP

UNCLAS ACCRA 000943

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREF GH LI SU TO
SUBJECT: GHANA REFUGEE ROUNDUP

REF: A. ACCRA 828

B. ACCRA 800

C. ACCRA 928


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Liberian refugees in Ghana recently
pelted the camp manager's car with stones, causing UNHCR to
withdraw all services to the Budumburam settlement for one
week. Of the 224 newly arrived Sudanese refugees, 40% have
now been interviewed and 3% have been favorably adjudicated.
New refugee inflows from Togo have slowed to single digits,
but UNHCR has estimated that about 2,500 of the 10,900 living
in Ghana will require medical, nutritional, or other
assistance from UNHCR. End Summary.

--------------
The Liberians
--------------


2. (U) Normally quiet Budumburam camp, located at the
western outskirts of Accra, has been the scene of several
disturbances since Ref Coord's last visit on April 29. Small
groups of somewhat agitated refugees, a phenomenon not seen
before, followed him during a good part of his two-hour walk
through the camp. Refugee concerns were mounting over
alleged fraud in the resettlement program; over the appointed
"welfare council," which some refugees alleged was neither
representative nor responsive to their needs; and over
allegations that UNHCR inspectors, visiting from Geneva, had
been told that food, water, and medical care were all
provided at no charge.


3. (U) Tension escalated to verbal threats and a rock
throwing incident late on April 29, during which the camp
manager's car was damaged. Afterward, UNHCR relocated the
camp manager and the chair of the welfare council to Accra
with their families. The rock thrower has since been
arrested. Exasperated, UNHCR Representative Thomas Albrecht
told Ref Coord he had had to deliver a stern warning to the
refugees: either shape up or he will ask the GOG to post
several military officers inside the camp. To emphasize the
seriousness of his message, he suspended all UNHCR services
to Budumburam during the week of May 1-7.


4. (SBU) In accounting for the mayhem, which is unusual but
not unprecedented at the normally placid settlement, Albrecht
opined that with Liberian elections approaching, tensions
were running higher than usual in the camp. He agreed to
reconstitute the welfare council based on a formula using
indirect elections, but conceded the new council would not be
strictly representative. Diversity was more important to
him, with representatives from all demographic groups
present, than having a council dominated by the camp's
majority ethnic Krahns. But Albrecht was dismayed that an
"entitlement mentality" had gripped many of the refugees,
some of whom have spent 15 years in camps. (Comment: This
kind of outbreak is highly unusual at Budumburam. The rumor
mill has clearly run amok. When pressed for details,
refugees could not offer a single credible example of fraud
in the resettlement program. Reconstitution of the welfare
council will, however, address one of the refugees' primary
complaints. While UNHCR has defused the latest crisis at
Budumburam, sporadic incidents are more likely to occur as
Liberian elections draw closer and as refugees become drawn
into the emotion-laden political debate. End comment.)

--------------
The Sudanese
--------------


5. (SBU) Still biding their time within Accra's former
prison, Ussher Fort, the Sudanese are inching their way
through Ghana's refugee bureaucracy at an excruciatingly slow
pace. Some 40% of the 224 new refugees have been
interviewed, but the tempo should accelerate with the arrival
this week of a TDY, Arabic-speaking UNHCR employee from
Cairo. Of nine dossiers presented to the Ghana Refugee Board
for adjudication thus far, six were approved and three
returned to UNHCR for further clarification. Albrecht
commented that the Board had been even more generous than
UNHCR's recommendations, readily approving refugee status for
a Sudanese originally from the southern part of that country
who had been living only for a short time in Darfur.
Albrecht was grateful for the Refugee Board's attention to
detail but commented half in jest that at the present rate,
it would be Christmas before all of the Sudanese learned
their fate.

--------------
The Togolese
--------------


6. (U) Togolese refugee flows into Ghana peaked during the
weekend of April 22-24, when about 2,000 Togolese migrated
westward each day. The daily tally has since fallen to
single digits, with far more believed to be returning home,
perhaps as many as 250 per day, according to Albrecht. Six
hundred returned to Lome on May 8 and another 250 on May 9.
The official UNHCR figure of 10,859 in Ghana is therefore
probably too high, since no one is tracking returning
Togolese, many of them seen crossing the border into Togo
carrying their household possessions.


7. (U) Although initially only a tiny portion (1%) of the
Togolese sought UNHCR assistance, UNHCR has since become
aware of a larger number who are running out of food or cash.
Some 1,260 refugees staying near Jasikan, about 150
kilometers north of the main Aflao border crossing point,
have been identified as in need of food, medicine, or other
UNHCR support. As UNHCR continues its survey of Togolese
refugees, it expects to find another 1,200 who are in need.
In response, UNHCR plans to open a field office in the
provincial capital of Ho, 90 kilometers north of Aflao, with
a staff of about seven. As reported ref C, post knows of one
Togolese opposition politician who is in Ghana seeking
resettlement in the U.S. Colleagues at the Australian and
Canadian High Commissions here say they are also dealing with
several such cases.


8. (SBU) Post's political FSN, during a recent visit to the
Volta Region, observed many Togolese vehicles circulating in
the border villages. A teacher's hostel charging only $3 - 5
per night in Hohoe, Volta Region, was still full of Togolese,
although many were commuting to day jobs inside Togo.
Reports of nocturnal, house-to-house searches for opposition
supporters within Togo still have many refugees on edge.

--------------
Comment
--------------


9. (SBU) Comment: Although refugee numbers have peaked, the
prevailing calm depends on political developments in Togo.
Further bloodshed could lead to a renewed exodus, leaving
refugee partner organizations scrambling to support the new
arrivals.


10. Minimized considered.
YATES


NNNN