The Ghana Refugee Board (GRB) says budgetary constraints are impeding its efforts to renovate an alternative camp in the Western Region to evacuate over 150 Liberian refugees from the Gomoa Buduburam camp.
Following an intended evacuation of refugees at the Buduburam camp in the Central Region, which has been put on hold for about two years, many believe the camp has become notorious for criminal activities.
However, in an interview with Citi News to mark World Refugee Day, which was observed on Tuesday, the Executive Secretary for the Ghana Refugee Board, Tetteh Padi, expressed hope that the government would provide funds to continue the renovation.
“Describing the situation at hand, Mr. Padi said: “There is no limit to how long a person can be a refugee but what happens is that after a while, when the international community deems it safe for them to return to their country of origin, we facilitate their return and as you know, some of them were exempted and that is why we have the situation on our hands.”
He also disclosed that plans are underway to assist the Liberian refugees who desire to return to their home country.
“We are soliciting for some funding and thankfully, recently, the government asked us to resubmit a budget for them to look at for the funding for their relocation because we haven’t been able to make provision for it in our regional budgeting, and I am sure we will soon receive some funds to relocate them.”
