Lives Of Refugee Status Stripped Liberians In Gov't Hands

THE GOVERNMENT OF Liberia will be held responsible for any injury and breach of security that affects Liberians in Ghana . And Liberians, particularly the civil society, must be on red alert to take the Sirleaf government to task for further exposing our compatriots to harm and danger.

THE LIBERIAN GOVERNMENT , through its delegation in Ghana , conspired and negotiated with its Ghanaian counterpart to strip Liberian refugees in that country of their status as refugees. It is both a terrible shame and mistake that our government, which is elected, and which took oath, to protect and defend its citizens has taken such a cowardly diplomatic drift. By agreeing to a deal to have its beleaguered citizens denied refugee status, our government has put a final nail on the woes of our embattled compatriots. By breaking the refugee shield, the government and its Ghanaian co-conspirator have shot down international laws off our exiled citizens, preventing international protection and security, thus further exposing our people to more barbarity and more abuse from the aggressing government of Ghana .

THE LATEST ACTION by the Government of Liberia in the recent refugee crisis is that cruelest stance it has taken in the matter; it is even crueler than the condemnation it made against the refugees at the onset of the crisis.

INDEED, IT IS not difficulty for any sane person to correlate our government's early condemnation of the refugees' peaceful protest to its latest negotiation of the status-stripping deal with the Ghanaians. One can also easily believe skeptics' opinion that the government of Liberia actually instigated the Ghanaian action against its own citizens because it wanted them in Liberia , as the refugees' continued stay in that country or their insistence to resettle abroad berated our government's domestic agenda. It is easy for one to believe that the latest action is an attempt to create a more hostile environment necessary to hurry home the entrapped Liberian exiles in Ghana .

WHAT A DISHONORABLE game! What a fatal error. With the refugee status our citizens in Ghana now stripped of, who can predict the harm and danger in wait for our compatriots who are already being treated by an ultra-xenophobic political regime in Ghana--a regime which has trice evaded the refugees, a regime which dragged women and children in trucks after tear-gassing and beating them, a regime which still holds our citizens nearly incommunicado? Doesn't our government know that by liquidating--or acquiescing the liquidation of--the refugees' status, it has sent a clear invitation to for more mayhem, more brutality and more bedlam against our brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers in Ghana ?

EVEN ASSUMING THAT the Sirleaf government were coerced to consent to the deal, who gagged our government to the extent that it is not able to respond as a sovereign government in charge of nation where an equal number of Ghanaians reside and are enjoying? Who has stopped our leaders from sparing the last dime in our coffers to bring back our people under a massive, spirited repatriation--at least to tell the Ghanaians that there is a caring government in Liberia and that Liberians are not cowards--in fact, that the government's longtime desire of getting the refugees is fulfilled by the crisis?

ALL THE FAILURES and demonstrated cowardly attitudes being exhibited by our government make them stand culpable for any injury and harm that our people suffer. And we will ensure that Liberians are adequately mobilized and galvanized not only to hold the government blameworthy for any breach of security that will affect Liberians in Ghana , but also to ensure that the government's hands are held to the fire of law for its negligence and nonchalance.