Conflict in Africa remains one of the continent’s principal development challenges. The human, economic and development costs of conflict are immense. A peaceful and secure environment remains the greatest priority for ordinary Africans across the continent. However, this often remains a mirage for many as violent armed conflicts continue to take its toll on many ordinary citizens, often, displacing them as refugees. Some refugees remain in very a deplorable refugee camps that offer them no prospects of decent livelihood for many years. With fear that they would be persecuted upon return to their countries of origin and often the delays in finding solutions to political violence, refugees remain in a protracted situation. A Protracted refugee situation means that refugees have lived in exile for more than five years with no immediate prospect of finding a durable solution to their plight by means of voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement. Thousands of refugees who fled violent conflicts in the West Africa and other parts of Africa have lived for more than a decade in the Krisan and Buduburam refugee camps in Ghana. A situation that can be termed protracted. This paper investigated the perceptions of local Ghanaians, Refugees of Krisan Refugee Camp and Government Official on the integration of refugees in Ghana. Krisan Refugee Camp which was built in 1996, particularly, houses about 1,700 refugees from nine countries: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo Brazzaville, Côte d’Ivoire, Chad, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Sudan. The refugees have lived with the indigenous people of Krisan village for more than a decade and thus offered the best case for the investigation. The researcher used qualitative triangulation method to collect data. That is, he observed the refugees, the local people and supervisors of the refugee camp who made up the sample population. The researcher was able to conduct a face to face in-depth interview and studied necessary documents that informed the study immensely. Thematic data analysis revealed economic and employment opportunities, security, cultural and social networking and finally good counselling on the three traditional durable solutions as the themes greatly impacting on the integration of refugees in Ghana. A number of recommendations are made to inform the management and integration of refugees in Ghana and in Africa in general.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8217 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Mensah, David Ampoma |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Arts |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MPhil |
| Format | xii, 199 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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