Government Task Force to wind up operations in Salloum

From Ken Sackey, GNA Special Correspondent, Salloum, Egypt

Salloum, March 22, GNA - The Government Task Force sent to Egyptian border town of Salloum to assist in the evacuation of Ghanaians from Libya will wind up in the next two days because the situation on the border has normalised. "The wave of refugees has subsided if not stopped," Mr Clarence Hugh-Tamakloe, Leader of the Team, told the Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.

"Normalcy has returned to the border. We had only one Ghanaian today and he has been processed and is on his way to Cairo. There is no more action. If in the next two days we don't see any flux, we will wind up," he said.

Mr Hugh-Tamakloe said other international bodies such as the International Organisation for Migration would continue to process the refugees while the Ghana Mission in Cairo is also available. The government announced the Task Force last month with the instruction to establish an Evacuation Liaison Post at Salloum to coordinate the evacuation of Ghanaian citizens from Libya. The six-member team included medical personnel from the 37 Military Hospital, personnel from the National Security and a journalist from the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

The team was to augment an advance party from the Ghana Embassy in Cairo already at the border.

Mr Hugh-Tamakloe said the Task Force processed some 1,400 Ghanaians at Salloum before sending them to Cairo from where they were flown to Accra.

He described the exercise as 93peculiar" saying there was no shelter, the weather was not friendly while there was the need for medical treatment for the evacuees."

"We need to be ready for such occurrences at any time. We need a format for such exercises," he said.

One of the difficulties the Task Force faced was the processing of a huge number of Ghanaians who did not have travel documents. Further, the Egyptian authorities at the border would not allow anybody into their country without valid travel documents. He said it was easy to process those with valid documents, but it took some time to process those without documents. In addition, the Egyptians would allow people to be transported to Cairo airport only when those already there had been airlifted. There was also the problem about flights at a point as commercial/charter flights were scarce with thousands of people of all nationalities seeking flights back home. 22 March 11