Cross River government has urged the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), to evolve new strategies of partnership with it, in order to properly respond to refugees’ challenges.
The state commissioner for International Development Cooperation, Inyang Asibong, made the call when officials of the commission paid her a courtesy visit on Friday in Calabar.
Asibong noted that her ministry mediated between government and international organisations in the state, and it was necessary to profile the activities of the organisations as they related to refugees.
The commissioner emphasised that as a United Nations agency that handled affairs of the displaced persons, UNHCR owed it as a duty to make available their programmes and projects to the ministry.
She said: “UNHCR has been doing a great job in Cross River. I have been to the refugee settlement in Ogoja Local Government Area severally.
“We need to set out a new modality with a view to bringing about proper response to the challenges faced by refugees in the state because they are increasing in numbers daily.”
She requested UNHCR to review its response approach to enable the state government to key into its plan for an effective partnership to ameliorate the plight of refugees in the state.
Earlier, the head of UNHCR office in Cross River, Tesfaye Bekele, said that Cross River was one of the few states where refugees were treated with dignity.
“Honestly speaking, this is commendable; we are happy about it. We will continue to cooperate with the state government, and we need your support,” he said.
Bekele, who noted that UNHCR needed expansion across the country, added that currently, the commission had its presence in Ogoja, Cross River as well as Benue and Taraba.
He explained that the commission’s operational office in Ogoja oversaw all refugee programmes, including the Cameroon refugee programme in Cross River and those in Taraba and Benue.
He told the commissioner that the choice of Ogoja was based on the large number of refugees being hosted in the settlement.
