Ivorian refugees in Ghana fear repatriation – Report

Ivorian refugees who came to Ghana due to their country’s 2010 election disturbances don’t want to go back to their native home, reports the UN humanitarian news website IRIN December 19, 2013.

It is believed that of the 12,500 Ivoirians who fled from their country to Ghana and Togo, only 710 have returned home.

Many of those who fled to Ghana are from Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, Abidjan, and other urban areas. Among them are high-ranking stalwarts of ousted President Laurent Gbagbo’s ruling party, as well as members of the once-powerful party youth wing and the university students’ union. Those who fled to Liberia, on the other hand, were mainly from rural western Ivory Coast and border villages.

Ann Encontre, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) representative in Ivory Coast, said “The [repatriation] process is more active in Liberia than in Ghana mainly because of the refugee profile in these two countries.”

“In Ghana, we unfortunately don’t have the same involvement by the authorities and the community leaders of the host country and the country of origin, and former top officials [of Gbagbo’s party] at times have a dissuasive influence over the refugees,” Encontre explained.

Some refugees reportedly said the main reason they have not returned home is fear of the Ivoirian army the Republican Forces of Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI). The refugees believe that majority of soldiers in the Ivorian army are former rebels who backed Gbagbo’s opponent, President Alassane Ouattara. The Ivorian army has, in recent times, been accused of committing abuses including arbitrary arrests and torture.

“When you return home, it’s as though some people have been waiting to kill you. They wait for a while before they come for you. Some people will never return,” the IRIN quoted Bernard Kablan, a former student and resident of Youpougon, a pro-Gbagbo neighbourhood of Abidjan as saying from his Ghana home.

Kalan, the IRIN reported, indicated that in September this year, three of them returned to Abidjan. “On two nights, FRCI soldiers came to our house. The threat was real, and we decided to flee once more to Ghana. Under the circumstances, it is difficult to think of returning, although we know they can trace us to where we are now,” Kablan said.

Adrien Koné, who said he was a staunch member of the youth movement, also said that he had to flee back to Ghana because of fears of reprisal from FRCI troops.

“In Abidjan, I had the feeling that I was constantly being followed. In the neighbourhood, people claiming to be FRCI had been informed of my return. I eventually stayed for only two nights before returning to Accra,” Koné recounted.

In a UN expert panel report  earlier this month, Ghanaian officials said that Côte d’Ivoire had sent hit squads to abduct or kill pro-Gbagbo exiles and that the authorities had thwarted two such attempts.

The report also added that exiles in Ghana had allegedly hired Liberian mercenaries to carry out attacks in Côte d’Ivoire, and that Ivorian officials allegedly paid millions of francs to the mercenaries to call off the attacks.

But Ivoirian authorities denied the claims. “We don’t give credit to what was reported. We don’t operate that way, and we are waiting for more information on the report,” government spokesman Bruno Nabagné Koné told reporters.

UNHCR’s Encontre pointed out that such “reports and information, if not verified can discourage some refugees from returning home. It is important that all the parties involved act in good faith and show commitment to the repatriation process as well as the true picture of what is happening on the ground.”

In late November this year, UNHCR, Ghana and Ivory Coast authorities were said to have held a meeting in Abidjan to encourage returns.

“We decided to intensify our ‘come-and-tell visits’ campaigns in Ghana to better inform the refugees about the situation in their home country, with the focus being on security, traditional justice, land disputes, among others, as well as the reintegration and disarmament progress,” said Encontre, the IRIN report said.

By Ekow Quandzie