Liberian Refugee Women Say Integration Is Not An Option
Women residents of the Buduburam Refugee Settlement have been boycotting normal activities to announce their dissatisfaction over plans to reintegrate Liberian refugees into the Ghanaian society.
The peaceful demonstration is characterized by a group gathering at the entrance of the camp in a field under the scorching sun at day and sleeping in the dews at night, fasting and praying and boycotting even the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR)/World Food Programme (WFP) ration distribution of maize and oil.
A wall of protestors display banners.
The hundreds of Liberian women, who have no leader, can be seen with banners and posters with messages inscribed such as "To be a refugee is not a crime, Stop! The humiliation!." Others read: "Discrimination! Resentment! Prejudice! Injustice! All against us!!" and "International Community, please hear our plea. We are tired with this protracted refugee situation."
They said they will not stop until they can get responses that will be in their best interest and the interest of their children and husbands.
The desperate crowd of Liberian refugee women said they are advocating for increments in the repatriation package from $5 to at least $1,000 or resettlement to a third country of asylum and protesting against possible integration in Ghana.
Like other refugees, Tenneh A. Kamara said in an interview that the Liberian Refugee Welfare Council (LRWC) has changed its position to that of public relations officer for the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR. They say this because to them, the LRWC is not seeking their welfare but rather acting on behalf of the UNHCR, something which is unimaginable.
Protestors display a Liberian flag next to a banner with a message
directed at the Ghana Refugee Board.
She said she wanted the international community, policy makers and donors to know that Liberians were still in Ghana and were not getting their entitlement.
Ms. Kamara said some of the entitlement were healthcare, education, work and access to the Ghanaian market. Therefore, they are saying they don't want to be in Ghana next year.
"We are tired. Integration is not an option," were the words of Ms. Kamara as she lamented their plight. "She added that they were not just a group of people who wanted donors to resettle them; they were people who deserved resettlement; they were people with documents stating they have been resettled but were still here in Ghana.
Some people had started the resettlement process but it came to a halt. These people are qualified for it and they should be resettled or be repatriated in dignity with a package of $1,000 and other items.
Close-up of protestors with banners.
The Honorable Varney B. Sambola, III, chairman of the LRWC, said he didn't understand their points and their activities did not have the support and backings of the Council.
Mr. Sambola said that if Liberian refugees have problems, the Council should be called upon to champion their cause. And that a group of people should not just wake up and start to do what they think is right. He added that if the group of women had come to the Council, identified themselves and presented their case, the Council could have even collaborated with them in drawing the attention of the international community if they deem it right.
All attempts to hear from the settlement manager who is the Ghana government representative in the settlement were not fruitful up until the compilation of this report.
However, there are divergent views in the settlement from other residents about the women's peaceful demonstration as to whether it is right and necessary.
Protestors sitting under the hot sun.
Rev. Togba Andrew Kaijay; an influential resident and a classroom teacher, tried justifying the rightfulness of the women's action with his fear for the fourth deportation of Liberians from Ghana. He said Liberians needed to do all they could to get out of Ghana because if they opt for integration, in no time they will be deported back to Liberia for unqualified reasons like limited productivity, lack of enough jobs for even Ghanaians, and the like.
He made reference to previous deportation of Liberians from Ghana during the regimes of late presidents, William V. S. Tubman, William R. Tolbert and Samuel K. Doe.
Harenton Cashier Chea, a founding member and project ambassador of the RESPECT Intellectual Club, an initiative of RESPECT Ghana and a One World Youth Project, said he supported the Liberian women's peaceful demonstration except for their move to stop their children from going to schools.
He based his point on the fact that students of the 9th grade (JSS III) and 12th grade (SSS III) were preparing to write their Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in April and the West Africa Senior Secondary Schools Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) later in September respectively so nothing should be done to disturb their studies.
He added that children had the right to education so stopping them from going to school was an infringement of their fundamental human rights. He, therefore, called on the Buduburam Central Education Board (BCEB) to do something about parents who were stopping their children from attending school and those who were attempting to do so.
Mr. Chea was very keen on the appeal for the $1,000 by the women. To him, calls for $1,000 after 18 years of stay in exile should be revisited because it could not support a person for three complete months with the basic necessities of live.
He said he was very much in favor of the women's first option of resettlement because an appeal for even $2,200 could not really cater to a person returning to Liberia after 18 years of stay in exile taking the economy, building, establishment and other things into consideration.
He said that after war in every country, people were supposed to be repatriated but UNHCR Ghana did not really invest much into higher education for Liberian refugees during the exile period. He noted that there were a lot of high school graduates in the settlement but few with tertiary education.
The women demonstrating said that they will not stop their appeal "until Jesus comes." They explained Jesus' coming to be the durable solution they were opting for.
The position of the men cannot be left out as anyone can guess that the men are, if truth be told, very much in support of what their mothers and wives are doing. But according to some, the women have asked them to stay out of the process. They are capable of championing the cause in the interest of every Liberian refugee living in Ghana.
Sources have said that the men were also planning to use another peaceful means to add their voices to that of their wives and mothers to draw the international community attention to the plight the Liberian refugees are facing in Ghana.
They said that men were known to be violent but they were about to show to the international community, UNHCR Ghana and every stakeholder concern that indeed Liberian men were intelligent and peaceful people who knew what was right.
Interestingly, UNHCR Ghana is yet to be seen in the settlement addressing the concerns being raised by the Liberian refugee women.