40 Refugees to be repatriated

Ghana Refugee Board (GRB) has stated it will repatriate more than 40 refugees who are currently living in the open at Dzorwulu, a suburb of Accra.

Project Director of the Board, Tetteh Padi stated on Multi TV’s AM Show yesterday that the refugees gave inconsistent accounts of how they got to Ghana.

The asylum seekers are made up of children, men and women from Congo Brazzaville in the Central part of Africa.

The leader of the displaced persons, Forster, said they came to Ghana because they were fleeing from a conflict in their country.

Civil wars and militia conflicts have plagued the Republic of Congo also referred to as Congo-Brazzaville.

Fighting erupted in the southern part of the country after President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s re-election landed in a disputed poll earlier this year.

The exchange of heavy fire between troops and unidentified assailants forced thousands of residents to flee the country, according to the AFP News agency.

The leader of the asylum seekers told Joy News they were convinced by an agency to throw away their documents to avoid being identified when they got to Ghana.

Forster said some two women from the agency charged them some amount of money and said they could help them travel to the United States.

They were abandoned by the representatives of the agency upon reaching Ghana and were directed to the Ghana Refugees Board.

But the Project Director of Refugee Board, Tetteh Padi said the board suspected the truth of their stories.

After conferring with their counterparts in Congo Brazzaville, the GRB has rejected their application for asylum as displaced persons.

Mr. Padi indicated that they will be handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to repatriate them.