General News of Sunday, 6 April 2008

Source: GNA

Another 169 refugees in Ghana go home.

Aflao, April. 6, GNA- Another batch of 169 Togolese refugees in the Denu and Aflao areas of the Volta Region were on Friday evacuated to their country by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). About 200 others were repatriated back to Togo about two weeks ago. Both evacuations were under a voluntary programme. This brings the number of refugees repatriated since the take off of the exercise three months ago to about 2,969. The group was handed over to the UNHCR officials in Togo at the Aflao/Lome frontier. Mr Anicet Ndayisaba, UNHCR Head of Field Programmes in Ghana said another group of 202 Togolese refugees from the same area were being processed for repatriation on Thursday April 10, this year. He said about 3,000 Togolese refugees were still living in the Volta Region and that the repatriation programme remained on course with all stakeholders including the refugees fully cooperating. Mr Ndayisaba said so far none of the refugees had offered to stay behind and be integrated into the Ghanaian society. About 8,000 Togolese were identified by the UNHCR to have fled into parts of the Volta Region following the political upheavals that engulfed their country during the controversial presidential elections that brought Faure Gnassingbe to power after the sudden death of his father Gnassingbe Eyadema.