Refugees express concerns to UN representatives

By J. Keanmue Tokpah

The crowd stood in the Saturday morning sunshine waiting, talking and exchanging greetings with passersby. From time to time they watched the road leading from the entrance of the settlement.

At last the objects of the interest arrived - two UNHCR land cruisers. They parked about 10 meters away from the offices of the Liberian Refugee Welfare Council (LRWC). From them emerged three expatriates who had just ended an hour-long closed door meeting with the manager of the Buduburan Refugee Settlement, Cal Afun.

The two-man delegation, one from Geneva and one from Oxford University, was on a visit to the settlement to assess general living conditions and take recommendations from residents back to UN headquarters.

Following the introduction by Afun, the chairman of the LRWC, Varney B. Sambola, welcomed the delegation and commended the government and people of Ghana for the hospitality accorded the refugees during their 17-year stay at Buduburam. He also commended the UN for its support to the settlement over the years.

Mr. Sambola stated that there were concrete reasons why refugees were still residing at the settlement almost two years after Liberia has had an elected government.

"Some people can not return because of fear, insecurity, fear of repeated fleeing and the distance of Buduburam form Liberia", he said. "Unlike our fellow refugees who are residing in countries closer to Liberia, we con not easily go home to assess conditions there before coming to prepare and return.”

In response, the head of the delegation, Jeff Crisp, of UN Geneva office, commended Buduburam residents for expressing their courage, hope and frustrations to the team. He then stated the purpose of the team's visit to the settlement.

"We came to listen to your concerns and take your recommendations back to UN headquarters", he said.

Mr. Crisp further commended the settlement for its resilience. "Buduburam is famous at the UN for the courage, hope and dynamism of its people," he stressed.

Thereafter, a cross section of refugees put forward a number of recommendations. The chairman of the Buduburam Central Education Board, Moses K. Bah, spoke about education.

"We want the UN to revisit the supply of stationeries to schools and pay teachers in order for education on the settlement to be affordable for all if not totally free for all," he said.

"We also want the UN to assist students who have enrolled at various institutions of higher learning in the country and are no longer able to sustain themselves financially," he said.

Also speaking, LRWC head of women and children affairs department, Jenneh S. Blay, called for the world body to cater for the family, especially children in foster care and both male and female single parents.

For his part the head of the department of youths and sports, Samuel Cox, called for the UN to assist the settlement in the area of sports in order, he said, "to help break down the mental tensions we are suffering because of our status".

Other recommendations made included a call for UN to build urinals on the camp, deliver improved and safe drinking water to the settlement, improve the security system, and delivery on past promises to the residents of the settlement, like fixing the water problem.

The delegation later toured the several places on the settlement, including the St. Gregory Catholic Clinic and the Women Center in Area-U.

A call was also made for the UN to address the question of resettlement, which is the mother of all pressing concerns here at the settlement,

The list of things refugees want done at the camp is long.

* They want the UN to provide drugs to the St. Gregory Clinic so that refugees can have free medicare.

* They want more paid work. Most jobs at the settlement are done on a 100% voluntary basis. The few that are done for pay, pay less than $50 U.S. per month.

* The schools need funding. None of the schools have a science laboratory, and there are not enough books in the library.

* They’re calling for the elimination of age barrier as a condition for scholarships offered to refugees. The current limit is 34 years, up from 28 years just a few years ago.

* They want more training for teachers at the settlement, in order to upgrade the standard of education.

* They want a break on school fees. It costs nearly $50 U.S. per term at most of the settlement’s remaining 37 schools. There are three terms in an academic year here.

Many of the requests were centered on upgrading the standard of education on the camp. Students scored low on basic education tests administered in Gomoa District, which is where the camp is located.

The UN is putting more of an emphasis on resettling refugees.

At the end of July 2006, the UN cut back its support to the camp by up to 67%, and diverted some of funds to the voluntary repatriation program. On June 30th this year the repatriation program ended, but the UN has not yet reinstated funding to people still living at the camp.

The UN has not said what will happen to the camp and the people who did not take advantage of the program to resettle in Liberia.

Mr. Sambola asked the UN to address the plight of refugees at the settlement once and for all.