About 500 Liberia refugees living in a part of the Liberia Refugee camp, Zone five\u00a0are appealing to\u00a0government to intervene in a planned demolition exercise soon to hit the area.<\/p>\n
The Liberians have been served notices by authorities of the St Gregory Catholic Hospital to vacate their houses to pave way for the expansion of the health facility in the camp.<\/p>\n
The St Gregory Catholic Hospital, run by the Catholic Church is the only health facility in the Liberia Refugee Camp. It serves all refugees in and around the camp, including illegal Ghanaian settlers there. It also serves many others in Gomoah Fetteh in the Central Region.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Citi News<\/strong>, Mathias Ayegre Anaba, the Administrator of the St Gregory Catholic Hospital, said the hospital\u2019s Management have secured 5.02 acres of land in the camp to expand its facilities.<\/p>\n The expansion works he said will commence soon which is expected to affect structures close by.<\/p>\n According to him, the hospital\u2019s management and officers of the Buduburam Refugee Settlement office have both sensitized the residents on the issue, giving them an ultimatum to vacate their houses by July 2014.<\/p>\n \u201cWe bargained and agreed that by 5th<\/sup> of February 2014, they should leave. We didn\u2019t move them in February, we had sensitized them, others had voluntarily moved, but we still kept a human face, because they still talked about hardship. But we realize that people are now moving in to settle and we need to expand the hospital. So they have held us up and nothing is going on\u201d, Mr Anaba said, adding, \u201cbut now, we are ready to carry on with our work however, we will give you one month notice again which is not new to anybody. We are running an announcement two times a week and will move in with a bulldozer on August 8 2014 when by then we expect that they have left\u201d.<\/p>\n Citi news checks at the Buduburam Refugee Settlement Office, located at the entrance of the Camp showed that it had instructed refugees who fall within the catchment area to locate vacant houses in other areas within the camp and resettle there.<\/p>\n The Utility Officer at the office, William Bentum indicated that the number of people to be affected by the demolition exercise was only 30, saying, \u201cwe don\u2019t know how the rest got in there. Some have moved out and others have moved in to stay there\u201d.<\/p>\n But the Liberians told Citi news they number close to 500. Fitz Matthews Jnr, who is a member of the leadership of zone 5 said they have not been given enough notice to vacate their homes. He said they were only informed about the exercise in January 2014 and have moved to identify empty houses in other zones to move to but to no avail. He said the issue is adversely affecting them.<\/p>\n \u201cLots of people are living with mental anguish now; a lot of them have been coming to me because they don\u2019t know what to do\u201d Mathews Junior said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact of the matter is that we are not illegally occupying this place. The structures here were self-built by Liberia refugees and not by the government of Ghana\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if you are telling us to leave, to be relocated; what happens to these people who used their meager resources to build these structures? Kick them out and say no compensation?\u201d Mathews Junior asked<\/p>\n However, Mr Ayegre Anaba said the hospital will not pay any compensation to the refugees or illegal settlers there because they did not deserve it.<\/p>\n The Liberians are therefore appealing to the government to intervene. Methews Junior summed up their frustrations saying, \u201cwe are strangers in your country, we have been hosted by your government. We don\u2019t have our own will. But if it is proper for the president of Ghana to allow this to happen to us, so may it be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Eugenia Tenkorang\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" About 500 Liberia refugees living in a part of the Liberia Refugee camp, Zone five\u00a0are appealing to\u00a0government to intervene in a planned demolition exercise soon to hit the area. The Liberians have been served notices by authorities of the St Gregory Catholic Hospital to vacate their houses to pave way for the expansion of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":31749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[38,17],"yoast_head":"\n