Liberian Refugee Sues Government

A Liberian refugee, Mr Chausanda Lawrence has sued the government over his missing wife. He is praying the court to compel the government to produce his wife and justify why she should not be released. Mr. Lawrence filed the suit at an Accra Fast-Track High Court with the support of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) and the Legal Resources Centre (LRC). In his statement of claim, the plaintiff is claiming his wife is missing and holds the government responsible. The Executive Director of the LRC, Mr. Edward Amuzu said the applicant was aware that his wife was at Kordeabe. But he is seeking an explanation for her continuous detention at Kordeabe. He said the designation of Kordeabe as a refugee centre by the government could not solve the problem. Mr. Amuzu told Joy News that the refugees were being policed even at Kordeabe, something he said clearly indicated that Kordeabe was not necessarily a refugee centre as the government claimed. There has been an unfolding drama between the government and the Liberian refugees for the past one month. The refugees have been protesting against resettlement in Ghana and instead want to be resettled in a western country. The protesting refugees are demanding a $1,000 reparation fee from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). But the Interior Minister, Mr. Kwamena Bartels warned them against the protest saying it was illegal. The intransigence of the refugees precipitated the intervention of the police. They picked about 60 of the mainly women protester from the Buduburam camp and taken to Kordeabe for screening and possible repatriation. The CHRI and the LRC threatened to sue the government for violating the constitution by detaining the refugees for more than 48 hours. It was in view of this that they supported the Liberian refugee to sue the government. A Minister of State at the Interior Ministry, Nana Obiri Boahen told Joy News that the Attorney General had not been served with the writ of summons yet. He said the AG would take a decision upon receipt of the writ. He rejected suggestions that the applicant’s wife had been wrongfully detained at Kordeabe. For him the government had done no wrong by keeping the refugees at Kordeabe, arguing the government had the right to relocate refugees to any part of the country.