Togo hosted more than 11,000 refugees at the end of 2002, the vast majority from Ghana.

Approximately 5,000 Togolese refugees and asylum seekers remained outside the country at year's end, including some 1,000 in Benin, up to 1,000 in Ghana, and more than 3,000 asylum seekers in Western countries.

Refugees from Ghana

Ethnic conflict in northern Ghana forced some 15,000 Ghanaians into Togo in 1994. About 10,000 remained in Togo at the end of 2002.

Most Ghanaian refugee families lived in northern Togo among local residents while others resided in Lomé, the capital. Most were well integrated and self-sufficient and required no humanitarian assistance.

The government of Ghana invited the refugees to repatriate in 1999, but relatively few did so during 2000–2001. An assessment team composed of officials from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Ghanaian government planned to visit refugee communities to begin registration for repatriation in October 2002, but canceled the visit because of violence in Côte d'Ivoire that disrupted travel plans. Some 500 Ghanaian refugees who had already indicated an interest in repatriation agreed to postpone their return home until 2003.

General Refugee Issues

UNHCR closed its office in Togo in December 2001. Refugee assistance and protection programs in Togo during 2002 were coordinated from the newly designated UNHCR Cluster Office in neighboring Benin.

UNHCR's implementing partners in Togo provided basic living necessities and limited housing assistance to vulnerable asylum seekers and refugees of various nationalities. Refugee children attending primary and secondary schools received enrollment fees and other educational benefits.

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