Bolgatanga, Dec. 17, GNA – Stakeholders have met to discuss strategies for coordination to enhance emergency and social protection service delivery to asylum seekers currently hosted at Tarikom in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region.
The coordination is to keep stakeholders informed of developments within the camps and among asylum seekers, improve activities and services provided, avoid duplication of interventions, and ensure proper targeting.
Organised by the Upper East Regional Department of Children with funding support from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the discussion brought together varied humanitarian and social protection organisations.
Some of the stakeholders included the Departments of Children, Gender, and Social Welfare, UNHCR, Ghana Refugee Board, World Vision, Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocesan Development Organisation, National Commission for Civic Education, Regional Coordinating Council, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, and security agencies.
It would be recalled that in the early parts of 2023, multiple suspected terrorist attacks on Bugri, Zoago and Zabre and other border communities in Burkina Faso compelled more than 4,000 people at the time to flee to Ghana and spread across several communities in Bawku Municipal, Bawku West, Binduri, Garu, and Tempane Districts.
Led by UNHCR, a UN Refugee Agency, the Ghana Refugee Board and other partners, a comprehensive humanitarian response was implemented leading to the relocation of some of the asylum seekers to Tarikom where various stakeholders and organisations are providing various services for them.
According to the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council, about 7,000 asylum seekers had been registered at various parts of the region while over 900 of them had been relocated to reception and resettlement centres at Tarikom.
Mrs Georgina Aberese-Ako, the Upper East Acting Regional Director of the Department of Children, noted that various organisations had been proactive in providing key services to the asylum seekers and the meeting was meant to share the experiences in their line of service provision to the asylum seekers.
“We bring these stakeholders together for us to know the current situation with regards to the asylum seekers, the services they are rendering, the number they have reached out to and the impact and to know the way forward, what we can do as a group to improve upon the services that they are rendering,” she said.
“We also want to know the actual numbers of asylum seekers that they are helping in terms of children, how many boys, girls, men and women in that regard and the different services that they are rendering,” she added.
The Acting Regional Director explained that the coordination among the various stakeholders was key to ensure that the host communities also benefitted from the services rendered to the asylum seekers without creating conflicts.
She said the coordination would further help to avoid duplication of services by different organisations and added that it would help ensure effectiveness, efficiency, and greater impact.
The asylum seekers at Tarikom have been provided with shelter, electricity, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) facilities among other humanitarian services by various stakeholders and organisations.
GNA
FAA /KOA/LAA
17 Dec 2023
