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13,000 Refugees Continue to Stay in Ghana: UNHCR
A large numbers of refugees continue to reside in Ghana even though their countries are peaceful enough for them to return, including a sizable number of Liberians who returned home but later went back to Ghana citing continued insecurity in their country.
According to a report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reaching Lagos on Friday, Ghana currently has about 13,000 refugees and asylum seekers.
They include between 2,000 and 2,500 Sierra Leoneans, along with some 350 Togolese and a handful of refugees from Sudan and other countries, the UNHCR said.
The UNHCR is now awaiting the outcome of a refugee screening exercise to determine who qualifies for continued protection.
Last year, the UNHCR was prepared to help people who wanted to go back to Liberia after it ended the repatriation of Liberians from Ghana in December 1999, "but no one asked to return", an official of the international agency was quoted as saying in the report.
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