Budumburam Residents Threaten To Fight Against Demolition
Angry residents of the Budumburam camp popularly known as the Liberia camp in the Gomoa East District of the Central Region, have threatened to defy a directive to move out of the camp by today Thursday, September 30.
According to them, the place is not a den for criminal activities so they have nowhere to settle and will face off with anyone who attempts to forcibly eject them.
They contend that the Liberia Embassy has neglected them since the Ghana government asked them to return to their home country.
Some of the residents said, nothing will make them move out of the camp adding that they are not criminals as claimed by Chiefs and Elders of the area.
They disclosed that the Gomoa East Assembly has given some refugees 400 cedis each to seek a new place to live.
However, some other Liberian Refugees and residents of the camp have started packing their belongings out of the camp.
They accused the government of deception, stating that they were promised houses and money but those promises have not been fulfilled by the government.
But Government says the time has come for the place to be developed into a community with modern school, markets, proper layouts and other social amenities.
After the beginning of the Liberian civil war in 1989, the Ghanaian government established the Buduburam refugee camp in 1990 in response to the arrival of displaced Liberians in the country.
After the final ceasefire agreement of the war in 2003, UNHCR repeatedly urged the repatriation of refugees to Liberia.
The pace of repatriation, however, was sluggish among the remaining Liberians in Ghana due to the precarious political and economic environment in Liberia.
Many Liberian refugees in Ghana had been hoping for third-country resettlement but, with peace restored in Liberia, most no longer met the criteria for resettlement.
