Over 10,000 Burkinabes seek asylum in Ghana
More than 10,000 Burkinabe asylum seekers had sought safety in Ghana as of May 2025, fleeing armed conflict, extremist violence, and climate-related shocks in their home country.
The asylum seekers were being hosted in communities, particularly in Northern Ghana, including Tarikom, Zini, Fielmo, Bansi and Issakatinga.
Mr Joshua Roland Baidoo, Strategy and Integrated Programmes Director of World Vision Ghana, a Christian humanitarian non-governmental organisation, disclosed this during a stakeholder engagement held in Bolgatanga as part of activities marking World Refugee Day 2026.
The event was marked under the theme, “Beyond Survival: Ensuring Long-Term Safety, Security, and Co-existence for Refugees.”
According to Mr Baidoo, the crisis unfolding in Burkina Faso and the Sahel region was not a distant tragedy but a lived reality, in which conflict, extremist violence, and climate shocks had forced thousands of families to seek refuge across Ghana’s northern border.
He explained that children remained the most vulnerable among displaced populations, stressing that globally, children accounted for nearly 40 per cent of all refugees, with many of these affected children facing interrupted education, heightened risks of abuse and exploitation, as well as psychosocial trauma.
“In Ghana’s refugee-hosting communities, far too many children have grown up knowing only displacement. That is the moral crisis that demands our response,” Mr Baidoo stated.
He said World Vision Ghana, through the BORDER Project funded by PATRIP and implemented in partnership with the Ghana Refugee Board, was supporting refugee-hosting communities in the Upper East and Upper West Regions.
The project, he said, focused on protection, livelihoods, and social cohesion to ensure that both refugees and host communities benefited from humanitarian interventions.
Mr Baidoo noted that in collaboration with the Ghana Refugee Board and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, World Vision Ghana was providing mechanised water systems in the Tarikom and Zini refugee camps, delivering more than 500 cubic metres of safe water daily to over 5,000 people.
He added that 54 communal toilets, 90 household toilets, 130 bathing units, and other hygiene facilities were also being constructed to improve sanitation in the camps.
Mr Baidoo further said that, through collaboration with the World Food Programme, more than 5,000 refugee households had received cash transfers, while over 500 children had been supported with clothing and school supplies.
He said World Vision Ghana had also partnered with private sector organisations, including Unilever Ghana, to provide oral hygiene kits for refugee children.
“These are not just statistics. They are lifelines. They represent dignity restored, health protected, and hope rekindled, especially for children who deserve to grow up safe, educated, and free,” he said.
While commending the host communities for their hospitality and solidarity towards the asylum seekers, Mr Baidoo called on government, development partners, and donors to sustain support for refugees and host communities through long-term protection and integration measures.
“Beyond Survival is more than a call; it is a commitment. We must move beyond emergency response towards long-term safety, security, and co-existence until every person forced to flee finds not only refuge but a future,” he said.
Mr Sika Agbesi, the Upper East Regional Coordinator of the Ghana Refugee Board, noted that the board had registered 5,576 refugees in the region, adding that out of the number, 2,380 had been relocated to the Tarikom Refugee Camp, where humanitarian assistance was being provided to them.
He called for continued support, particularly in the area of skills training for the refugees, to ensure that they had sustainable sources of income to live dignified lives and integrate well into Ghanaian society.
Mr James Ayamwego, the Bawku West District Chief Executive, commended World Vision Ghana and its partners for the support they continued to provide to complement government efforts to care for the refugees and called for collective efforts to address the rising refugee situation.
Source: GNA