The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is evacuating refugees, mostly Ivorians at Elubo in the Western Region, to a permanent refugee camp at Egyirikrom near Elmina in the Central Region.

Mr Ernest Kpodo, Ghana Immigration Staff Officer at the Elubo border made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the border on Thursday.

He said the evacuation exercise began on Wednesday with the first batch of 120 households, mostly women and children and 30 elderly men.

Mr Kpodo said the second batch would be evacuated on Friday, July 22, and that the exercise would continue on daily basis from next week till the transit camp was evacuated.

He said the evacuation exercise had been necessitated to avoid any security threat posed by the Ivorian refugees, some of whom were ex-combatants, and who had stayed at the border for almost seven months due to the congestion at the Ampaim Refugee Camp in the Ellembele District.

The Immigration Officer said the evacuation exercise was a collaborative effort involving the UNHCR, the Ghana Immigration Service and the National Disaster Management Organisation.