UN refugee body gets ready for refugees from Togo

Aflao, Feb 15, GNA - The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is collaborating with Ghanaian institutions, including the Ketu District Assembly, in readiness for any influx of refugees from Togo should the political crises in that country worsen.

The UNHCR, in consultation with the Ketu District Security Committee (DISEC), has earmarked the quarry of Dry-Dock and Dredge Company Limited at Metsrikasa in the Ketu District, 30 kilometres away from the Aflao, as the reception point in the event of any mass movement of people out of Togo.

Dry-Dock and Dredge Limited was the US company that built the Keta Sea Defence Wall.

Mr Linus Coffie, Ketu District Chief Executive, told the GNA in an interview that the UNHCR had rejected the Klikor Camp that was used in 1991 for Togolese refugees as unsuitable under UN criteria. He said the camp, though has all facilities required, was considered too close to the Togolese frontier.

Mr Coffie said while Klikor is 15 kilometres from Lome, the UN demands that such centres should be at least 30 kilometres away from the borders of the home country of the refugees.

He said officials of the UNHCR, Red Cross, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) and the Ketu District Assembly would visit the Metsrikasa camp this week to find out what needed to be done to make it habitable.

Mr Coffie said the camp, which was ransacked by people from the community when the contractors vacated it, would have to be fitted with doors and gates.

Miss Elizabeth Baffoe, Comptroller of Immigrations in charge of the Aflao Sector, said her outfit was ready to handle any influx of refugees but said the job of housing and protecting them was to be handled by NADMO and other organisations.