Tripartite discussions on Ghanaian refugees in Togo

Ghana, Togo and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) held talks last week on a request by the Ghanaian government for UNHCR assistance in repatriating refugees from Togo, a UNHCR source told IRIN. Ghana had asked the UNHCR for help in the voluntary repatriation of some 11,000 Ghanaian refugees successfully settled in northern Togo, where they are involved in micro-credit projects, according to the UNHCR source. “We felt they were integrated and they expressed no desire to return,” the official said. The refugees fled Ghana in 1994, following clashes between ethnic communities in the northern, the Dagomba, Nanumba and Konkomba. The UNHCR official said very few wanted to return to Ghana. Most preferred to remain with their kinsmen in Togo, he explained.