1,066 Returnees Screened At Essipon Centre

The Western Regional Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Mr. Solomon Doku has noted that the Essipon Refugee Reception Centre is not ideal for the screening and documentation of refugees and returnees.

He said most of the Ghanaians and other nationals, who arrived aboard GNS Bonsu yesterday could not be screened. He added most of them mingled with sympathisers who besieged the centre and escaped to town. Mr Doku who disclosed this to the Ghana New Agency in an interview at Essipon in the Western Region said out of over 1,300 returnees, 1,066 were screened due to the un-conducive conditions at the centre. He said the GIS however screened 705 Ghanaians, 350 Liberians, six Beninois, two Togolese, two Burkinabes and an Ivorian.

Mr Doku said all stakeholders in the handling and management of refugees and returnees would meet within the week and re-organise their strategies to make future exercises fruitful. Mr. Padmore K. Nyekopa-Arthur, Western Regional Co-ordinator of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) said the region would soon get a new refugee centre, to safeguard the lives and property of both refugees and Ghanaian returnees.