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