VZCZCXRO2746
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHAR #0087/01 0320743
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010743Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY ACCRA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8846
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0001
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ACCRA 000087 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR PRM, AF/FO, AND AF/W 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PREF PREL LI GH SL
SUBJECT: New UNHCR Representative Outlines Challenges in Ghana 
 
Ref: Accra 70 
 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  UNHCR's new Representative in Ghana, Sharon 
Cooper, has significant experience working with Liberian refugees 
and implementing local integration programs.  Cooper plans changes 
in office strategy for broader and more proactive engagement with 
the government of Ghana, particularly in pursuit of local 
integration for the remaining Liberian and Sierra Leonean 
population.  While UNHCR plans to invoke the cessation clause for 
Liberian refugees worldwide in 2010, the GoG currently lacks a 
strategy to handle the over 11,000 Liberians who will lose their 
group refugee status.  Engaging the GoG on this issue remains a 
major problem, as the Chair of the Ghana Refugee Board remains 
vacant, and the GOG remains reluctant to make fundamental decisions 
regarding the status of the remaining refugees.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
UNHCR -- New Representative, New Approach 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  UNHCR Representative Sharon Cooper arrived in Ghana in October 
2009, replacing Representative Aida Haile Mariam (who is now 
Representative in Cameroon).  Cooper was previously Senior 
Protection Officer in Liberia working with the return/reintegration 
of Liberian refugees, internally displaced persons and Sierra 
Leonean refugees.  She told RefCoord December 9 that she intends to 
refocus office strategy to become more proactive, cultivating 
additional GoG contacts beyond the GRB, and focusing on the concrete 
practical issues that would be needed to implement local 
integration.  She is examining Ghanaian laws impacting integration 
and refugee protection and will prepare an analysis of the gaps 
between Ghana's refugee and immigration laws to present Ghana with 
written information and recommendations.  She is seeking to improve 
coordination with other UN agencies and development organizations so 
that refugees are included in development plans and local 
communities benefit from projects to support refugee integration. 
 
¶3.  Cooper also intends to expand public information activities, to 
be implemented by the new Public Information officer, also 
previously posted in Liberia.  She is working to coordinate visits 
from UNHCR regional offices, organize press coverage, and conduct 
outreach sessions in the camps with concrete information about local 
integration.  The office will also work with NGOs and the media to 
educate them about refugee rights. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
New Approach, but Old Problems:  Liberians in Buduburam 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶4.  There are currently an estimated 11,924 Liberians in Buduburam. 
UNHCR continues to draw down staffing and services and has ended 
food distribution.  They are turning over facilities in the 
settlement (including the health clinic, schools, and a 
newly-constructed police station) to local and national authorities. 
 Liberian refugees in Buduburam have access to free primary school 
and access to health care through the Government of Ghana's National 
Health Insurance Scheme (UNHCR is paying the enrollment fee).  While 
most assistance has ended, UNHCR continues to conduct skills 
training and other programs to promote refugees' socio-economic self 
reliance. 
 
¶5.  The GoG continues to state that it intends to close Buduburam 
Refugee Settlement and disperse the refugees; however it has no 
operational or logistical plan to do so.  The GoG has not yet made 
fundamental decisions regarding legal status, social integration or 
facilitating economic self-sufficiency for the refugees who have (in 
the case of the Sierra Leoneans) or will (in the case of the 
Liberians) lose their prima facie refugee status through invocation 
of the "cessation clause." 
 
¶6.  UNHCR has told us that it intends to invoke the cessation clause 
for Liberians during the 2010 calendar year.  This means that those 
Liberians who had been recognized as refugees on a prima facie basis 
will lose their group status.  The logistics and procedures for how 
cessation will be implemented will be determined by GoG, in 
coordination with UNHCR.  In general terms, for a Liberian to retain 
refugee status, the GRB would have to grant them an exemption from 
the cessation clause based on a well-founded fear of persecution on 
the basis of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or 
membership in a particular social group.  Individuals with pending 
exemption applications are generally treated as asylum seekers and 
as such, would be protected from forced return until all appeals 
were exhausted.  Ghana's appeals system requires a decision by the 
Minister of the Interior, which can often take years. 
 
 
ACCRA 00000087  002 OF 002 
 
 
¶7.  To remain in Ghana in a non-refugee status, they would need to 
go through normal immigration channels such as getting a student 
visa or applying for a residence permit.  Under current immigration 
regulations for residence, an individual must make an exceptional 
contribution to the country, have matrimonial or parental ties to a 
Ghanaian national, have an employer willing to sponsor the work 
permit, or have $10,000 invested in a business (for those who are 
self-employed).  While some Liberians may qualify on family grounds, 
most would need to apply for a work permit which would require 
employment in the formal sector comprising less than 20% of the 
economy 
 
¶8.  Post and UNHCR believe that it is unlikely there will be 
progress in the immediate future.  The Ghana Refugee Board, 
dissolved by the Mills government in January 2009, has not yet been 
re-constituted, nor has the GoG named a new chair.  The GRB 
Secretariat of permanent employees continues to conduct interviews, 
but without a board there is no authority that can determine refugee 
status.  Furthermore, in the absence of a chair and a functioning 
Board, UNHCR lacks a key interlocutor with which to discuss and plan 
local integration.  UNHCR officials tell us that they continue to 
advocate with the GoG for the restoration of a functioning board. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Krisan Refugee camp "De-population" 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  According to UNHCR, the plan for Krisan remains to de-populate 
the settlement through facilitating repatriation and third-country 
resettlement and transfer responsibility to the GoG.  The population 
in Krisan (excluding those on resettlement programs and pending 
departure) is 949 individuals.  The population includes 332 
Liberians, 118 Sierra Leoneans, 200 Sudanese (both Southern and 
Darfuri), 259 Togolese and smaller numbers from Rwanda, Chad, the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, and Cote 
d'Ivoire.  As it has in past years, UNHCR Ghana fell far short of 
their overall resettlement referrals target: in calendar year 2009 
they referred only 59 individuals out of an anticipated 300. 
Although UNHCR had determined that resettlement is the most 
appropriate durable solution for the 200 Sudanese remaining in 
Krisan camp who have no realistic prospects for return or local 
integration, Accra RefCoord has received referrals for only 50 such 
individuals this year.  Cooper indicated that she intends to pursue 
resettlement as a durable solution, and indicated that the remaining 
referrals would be forthcoming. 
 
-------- 
Comments 
-------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Ghana has been a good host to refugees during their time 
of need, however, that time has passed.  The key challenge for UNHCR 
Ghana and GoG in implementing local integration for the Liberian 
refugees is to operationalize a specific legal and socio-economic 
plan before donor interest--and funding-- is exhausted.  Cooper 
appears to understand this challenge, and Refugee Coordinator 
welcomes the change in the attitude and strategy of the UNHCR Ghana 
branch office.  However, the GoG's reluctance to make decisions 
regarding refugees' status, exacerbated by the absence of a GRB 
chair and board, will continue to preclude real progress in local 
integration. 
 
TEITELBAUM