US embassy cable - 05ACCRA943

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. 
 
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The Liberians 
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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.) 
 
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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. 
 
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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. 
 
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Comment 
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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 
 
 
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