About 40 kilometers east of Accra there is a refugee camp that houses about 40,000 refugees from Liberia that were displaced by the civil war 17 years ago. In the past few years Liberia has returned to relative normality and the refugees want to go home.
The problem is that there is currently a stalemate between the Ghanaian government and the UNHCR over the cost of repatriation. The government of Ghana has done a tremendous job homing the refugees for the past 17 years and looking after them, now the UNHCR expects Ghana to bear the brunt of the repatriation costs. As you can imagine, the cost of sending 40,000 people back home does not come cheap, apart from transportation costs the refugees will also need funds to restart their lives in Liberia. The UNHCR should step in here and pay for the repatriation
Anyway, I was driving past the refugee camp a few days ago and the women were holding a protest so I stopped to take some photos.
The women holding up their banners, the whole line is probably 3 times longer than this.
Some refugees holding the Liberian flag,
Click on the photos for larger versions.
A Ghanaian passer by stops to read the protesters banners.
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