By Albert Futukpor
Tamale, July 12, GNA – Twenty returned migrants, and would-be migrants in the Northern Region have received food packages and other items to support their welfare.
Each of them received bags of rice, gallons of cooking oil, tinned tomatoes and packs of toilet tissues.
The returnees, are Ghanaians, returing from countries including Italy, Germany, Libya, Gabon and the United Arab Emirates.
The items were donated to the beneficiaries by Caritas Ghana, the charity arm of the Catholic Church, through the Tamale Archdiocesan Development Office (TADO) as part of the
Support Services for Migrants and Refugees in Transit (SMART) for Inclusive Development Project.
Reverend Sister Regina Ignatia Aflah, Project Coordinator, Human Rights and Justice, Caritas Ghana, speaking at a ceremony in Tamale to present the items to the beneficiaries, said the donation was to provide “Responsive humanitarian assistance and reintegration support for returned migrants and refugees in Ghana.”
Reverend Sister Aflah said it was also to curtail the menace of irregular migration from the country into the West through social and behavioural change communication activities in the communities by 2025.
She said the SMART for Inclusive Development Project was aimed at improving the institutional capacity of Caritas Ghana to respond to the relief and emergency needs of migrants and refugees in the country as well as “Migrants, refugees and their families, and community, shift their perspective of successes and failures related to migration.”
She urged all to desist from irregular migration as they faced challenges and inhumane situations in their destinations.
Most Reverend Philip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, in a speech read on his behalf, said the issues affecting migrants and refugees were a matter of concern to the global church and the Archdiocese of Tamale due to the trauma emanating from inhumane treatment, starvation, human rights abuses and fatalities, especially in the desert and on the Mediterranean Ocean.
Most Reverend Naameh gave assurance that “The church will continue to play its role in creating the needed awareness, especially among the youth about the dangers of irregular migration and also invest in the capacity building of the youth to enable them to take advantage of local opportunities in the technical and vocational sector of Ghana’s economy.”
He urged residents to be ambassadors for migrants and refugees in the communities as well as help in creating awareness on the dangers of irregular migration, threatening the labour force.
The Reverend Fr Sebastian Zaato, Coordinator of TADO said the organisation would explore with Caritas Ghana the possibility of implementing other interventions in the coming months under the project framework to broaden their outreach and build the resilience of local communities against threatening irregular migration.
Mr Abdullah Osman, a beneficiary of the donation, who returned from Germany, urged other returned migrants to be ready to start life again and advised them to learn self-employable skills to earn a living.
GNA