It’s barely a week since the Liberia Refugee Repatriation and Resettlement Commission (LRRRC) reported that a staggering 80 percent of Liberian returnees from Ghana were drug addicts, but it appears that the commission did not do due diligence or employ any empirical procedure to reach its conclusion.
On Tuesday of last week, the Executive Director of the LRRRC disclosed at a news conference that of the 770 Liberian refugees who returned from Ghana, 80 percent are drug users.
Mr. Patrick Worzie said this was a huge challenge that warrants the attention of the Ministry of Health, the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency and other partners to help rescue the situation.
He further reported that among the returnees are 16 pregnant women, 15 mentally ill (both men and women) and several underage children calling out the Liberian Embassy in Ghana for being supportive in the process.
However, during a multi sectoral visit on Friday, May 31, 2024 at the CARI Regional Transit Village in Bong County, where the returnees are being hosted, Worzie somersaulted by saying that the Ministry of Health was at the moment conducting drug tests on the returnees.
“As we speak, the Ministry of Health is on the ground right now and screening of everyone is going on within the tents. For those who are diagnosed to be on drugs, we will refer them to the Ministries of Health and Youth and Sports to make sure they are detoxified and reintegrated into the society, and those who are clear between now and Monday will be reintegrated in the society with their families,” he told journalists.
To make matters even more complicated, the Chair on Repatriation at the House of Representatives, Marie Johnson, said she could not confirm the 80% drugs status report of the returnees, but said “interaction will tell you and some of them admitted. They are willing to go through rehabilitation; they are willing to go through detox; that at least is something I can verify.”
For his part, Minister of Youth and Sports Cole Bangalu admonished the public not to stereotype the returnees based on a “blanket feeling” that they are all drug addicts.
“In my mind, there has been no serious assessment done to determine that is the case. Even if our family members that came are susceptible to drugs, there is something that can be done. We may be losing the war on the demand side of drugs; so focus on the supply side and it will be cut off. So there’s no conclusion yet that these people are all drug addicts,” the minister said.
He admonished everyone to wait on authorities to conduct the drug assessment of the returnees, and should it be the case they are found to be on drugs, all stakeholders must work together to ensure those Liberians are rehabilitated and detoxified.
