Starting anew in one's homeland can sometimes be fraught with difficulties as Vivian Dickerson has now come to experience since being repatriated to Liberia.
Upon her return to the country--a place she left over two decades ago to seek safety in Ghana--Vivian has been unable to trace the whereabouts of her family.
"I lost my mother and father, and I have not been able to trace any family members since we came," she explains.
In June 2024, the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) repatriated 1,539 Liberians who had lived for more than three decades in the Buduburam Refugee Camp in Ghana.
They were repatriated following an eviction order from the elder council of Gomoa District, where the refugee camp was located.
In 1996, theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had established the camp to provide shelter for Liberians who were displaced by the conflict that resulted in the loss of lives of over 250,000 persons, and forced thousands like Vivian into exile.
In 2012, the UNHCR declared the camp in Ghana closed, urging refugees to return home. Since then, the elder council of Gomoa District had been calling for the evacuation of the area, but many downplayed it.
In mid 2024, earth moving equipment, on orders of the local Gomoa government, razed down several homes built by Liberians in the area, including Vivian's.
This prompted the intervention of the Liberian government via the LRRRC and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to repatriate thousands back to the country.
Since their return, however, 1,074 individuals have been unable to trace their family members for reunification.
Vivian, 39, is one of those. At an early age, she fled the country like many others to seek safety in Ghana. Since her return to Liberia alongside her four children, it has been an uphill battle, she says.
"My aunty took me to Ghana when I was 17 in 2003," she reveals. "I came back to Liberia in 2009 after having my first child; and then I went back to Ghana. While in Ghana, my parents passed away. Since I returned, I haven't reconnected with any family members."
Reconnecting with her lost relatives and friends to provide temporary housing as she seeks to start anew has proven difficult, forcing her to stay at the Home of Transformation International Orphanage in Upper Caldwell.
Even with a resettlement package that includes US$300 for a household head, and US$225 for each of her four kids, she and her fellow returnees who are unable to trace their families continue to wade through the kinks of it all.
Although the LRRRC has doled out resettlement packages to the returnees, the Commission says it has been impelled to temporarily host them at orphanages in Samukai Town, Tweh Farm, and Johnsonville, further compounding its financial burden.
The current repatriation and resettlement is a government-led initiative. According to J. Armah Karneh, Deputy Executive Director Administration of LRRRC, US$1.3 million was allocated for the Commission to facilitate the repatriation and resettlement process.
"These are people of concern and we got attracted to them because it is very much pathetic to see a citizen who was displaced due to war [can] no longer trace their families," he says.
"Since we brought them, we have been helping to place them into camps and have them reunited with their families."
He says keeping them for a longer time at the orphanages was not part of the organization's post repatriation plan. "Returnees were supposed to receive their financial packages, and be reunited with their families."
The foreseeable future looks grim for Vivian Dickerson and her four children. And so it is also with Blessing Karma who was a toddler when she, alongside her mother and sister, fled to Ghana to escape the country's civil conflict.
"My mother and sister died there so I was there alone," she says. "I don't know my father's location." Now a beautician, she says she was self-supported throughout her stay in the Buduburam Refugee Camp.
Like Vivian and Blessing, many returnees shared a fate of uncertainty about returning home.
Many had established a full family while others were worried about resettlement, shelter, and reunification.
No Trace Request
Following the end of the Liberian civil war in 2003, the faces of thousands of Liberians who lost their families were plastered on walls across the country by the Liberia National Red Cross, asking the public to identify them for possible reunification. The feat resulted in thousands being reunited with their lost relatives.
In the case of the recent repatriated Liberians from Ghana, the organization says it has not received a formal request from the LRRRC about the 1,074 individuals who are unable to trace their families.
Oniel Bestman, communications officer of the Liberia National Red Cross, says the institution stands ready to assist in locating and reuniting the returnees with their loved ones via its Restoring Family Links (RFL) program.
"The Red Cross remains dedicated to ensuring that returnees are welcomed back into their communities with dignity and support, and we encourage anyone in need of tracing services to reach out so that we can act promptly to facilitate these reconnections," he says.
Responding to the Red Cross' claims, the LRRRC admitted that it has not submitted a family tracing request to the institution to assist with family tracing. "We are trying to ask Samaritan's Purse for some non-food items."
J. Emmanuel B. Barwon is another returnee who also cannot trace his family. Like Vivian Dickerson and Blessing Karma, he is being lodged at the Home of Transformation International Orphanage in Samukai Town, Caldwell. Barwon has lived in Ghana for more than three decades..
He served as the principal of the Buduburam Camp School..
"Ghanaians thought we had nobody so they treated us any way they wished; so when we saw our government coming to get us it was a big pride for the country and we highly appreciate that," he said.
Returnees plea for more support
While Vivian, Blessing, Emmanuel and many others await their fate to be traced and possibly reunited with their families, they say they are enterprising and stand ready to contribute to society.
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The trio are pleading for assistance to start a mini business. Vivian and Blessing have certificates in hairdressing and soap making, while Emmanuel is an educator.
The LRRRC says they are assisting returnees by referring them to job opportunities, collaborating with government ministries to absorb returnees with specific skills, and assisting each returnee to reintegrate in the society.
The LRRRC Deputy Director for Administration says it is struggling for more funding to host the returnees, especially those who cannot trace their families or relatives. He furthered that those in Grand Gedeh and Nimba Counties have not received their financial packages due to bad road conditions.
He revealed that there are additional 2,700 Liberians still in Ghana who have been identified and were not part of the first and second batch of returnees.
"It is anticipated that we will be fully supported by the government and that of the International Organization Migration to support us in bringing back a little over two thousand seven hundred of our people stranded in Ghana."
Whether they will be met with similar fate like Vivian, Blessing and Emmanuel remains to be seen.
"We are going to lobby with international partners and the government to ensure that we can be supported to repatriate them."
This story has been produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. The contents are the sole responsibility of journalRAGE and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the views of the European Union.
