Amina — not her real name — still remembers the night she walked away from everything she had built in her small community in Burkina Faso. The air was thick with dust, and the cool wind carried an uneasy silence. Her young children clung to her hands, their small fingers trembling as they stumbled along the narrow path.
The journey unfolded in fragments — long stretches on foot, each step pressing into the dry earth, and cramped hours in an overloaded vehicle that groaned under the weight of bodies and baggage. They moved under the cover of darkness, careful not to draw attention, slipping quietly out of the country she had once proudly called home.
Her destination was a refugee camp in Ghana’s Bawku West District. But life here is nothing like what she left behind.
In Burkina Faso, she could earn her living, feed her children, and dream of a better future. Now, the camp’s boundaries feel like invisible walls. Every day is shaped by rules and rations — by what she cannot do rather than what she can. Safety may have brought her here, but it also came with limitations she never imagined.
Yet Amina is not alone.
On a bright morning in Tarikom, a young farmer Iddrisu, not his name carefully tends to a small patch of vegetables. “I never thought I would farm again after fleeing,” he says, “but now I can feed my family and even share food with my neighbors.”
Nearby, children in neatly pressed school uniforms run across to a sschool within the community. These small but powerful moments show that refugees are not only surviving; they are contributing — sharing skills, forming savings groups, and helping to restore the dignity of work.
The Numbers Behind the Crisis
Amina’s story is one among thousands. By 2023, Ghana’s Ministry of the Interior had already raised concerns about the influx of Burkinabe nationals, reaffirming the country’s long-standing commitment to refugee protection since the 1960s. As a signatory to key international refugee conventions, Ghana reported hosting asylum seekers from 35 countries and had registered over 3,200 Burkinabe refugees fleeing armed attacks by extremist groups.
In response, the state and its partners established a reception center at Tarikom in the Bawku West District, relocating over 500 asylum seekers from vulnerable border areas. The commitment was clear — Ghana would host and support these individuals until conditions improved in their homeland.
But the numbers have only grown.
In Tarikom alone, 1,943 asylum seekers have arrived — 1,249 women and 694 men. Among them are 304 children under five and 531 children aged 5–11 who, in another life, would be in school in their home villages.
The broader Upper East Region now shelters 5,156 asylum seekers. Women again outnumber men significantly — 3,078 compared to 2,078. These include 742 toddlers and infants, 1,509 primary school-aged children, and 711 teenagers. Most strikingly, there are 1,464 working-age women (18–59) who once sustained their families through farming, trading, or small businesses. Even the elderly have been uprooted — 198 people aged 60 and above are living far from the homes where they expected to spend their final years.
Across Ghana, more than 9,400 Burkinabe nationals are officially registered as needing refuge, with thousands more likely still making the difficult journey. UNHCR data from December 2024 estimates that the country now hosts around 17,300 registered refugees and asylum-seekers, with roughly 17,000 asylum-seekers spread across the Upper East, Upper West, and Bono East regions alone. Ghana Immigration Service estimates suggest another 11,500 remain unregistered, hinting that the real scale of displacement could be far greater.
These figures are not just numbers — they represent entire communities uprooted, livelihoods abandoned, and futures placed on hold.
Building Resilience in the Borderlands
For Amina and others who have made this journey, help is beginning to arrive. The newly launched BORDER Project, spearheaded by World Vision Ghana in partnership with RACED Ghana and supported by the PATRIP Foundation, aims to strengthen resilience and foster stability in northern Ghana’s most vulnerable frontier zones — including Tarikom and its surrounding refugee settlements.
This initiative promises more than immediate relief. It aims to improve daily life through solar-powered clean water systems, eco-friendly sanitation facilities, and safer maternal and child healthcare. It also supports livelihood restoration — drip irrigation and climate-smart farming training will equip displaced families to regain a measure of self-sufficiency.
Across the settlement, small plots of green now break through the dusty landscape. Refugee families have begun tending these farms — rows of tomatoes, okra, and onions nurtured with newly introduced irrigation methods. “We don’t just sit and wait,” says Oumarou, a father of four who once grew groundnuts back in Burkina Faso. “We work together on each other’s fields, so that no family goes hungry.”
This spirit of communal labour has become a lifeline. Groups of men and women rotate between farms, lending their strength where it is most needed. When one family plants, others come to weed. When another harvests, neighbors arrive to help carry the baskets home. It is an old tradition of solidarity, now reborn in exile.
Host families, too, are part of this story. In one village near Tarikom, an elderly Ghanaian farmer explained why he welcomed a displaced Burkinabè family to use part of his land: “One day, it could be me needing help. We must live as brothers and sisters.”
Beyond farming and daily survival, the BORDER Project is investing in peacebuilding. Traditional leaders and local authorities are receiving training in conflict resolution, early-warning systems are being strengthened, and sustainable land management is being promoted to reduce tensions between refugees and host communities.
Beyond Emergency Response: Strengthening Migration Governance
While humanitarian partners work to address immediate needs in the camps, Ghana is also bolstering its long-term capacity to manage migration flows across its porous northern borders — the same paths taken by thousands of Burkinabe refugees.
At crossings like Paga, where many asylum seekers first enter Ghana, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Ghana has deployed its Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) to six border points, including Namoo, Pulmakom, and Mognori. This system equips officers with the tools to record arrivals, assess needs, and coordinate with relief agencies. In 2024 alone, 124 officers were trained to operate the system efficiently.
IOM has also worked with the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) to create a cross-border humanitarian response plan — tested through a simulation exercise at the Ghana-Burkina Faso border in September 2024. The plan ensures a timely, coordinated interagency approach to displacement crises like the one now unfolding.
Infrastructure investments have followed. Over 1,000 boreholes have been constructed to provide clean water in border communities, and key border posts have been renovated. The organization has also supported Ghana Card registration for over 4,000 border residents — an initiative that could prove vital for integrating refugees into local systems.
In parallel, IOM’s Community Engagement and Policing program is fostering social cohesion in host communities like Pulmakom and Pusiga, where tensions can rise under the pressure of sudden population increases. By training local leaders and officers to prevent violent extremism, these efforts aim to keep border communities both safe and welcoming.
More Needs to be Done
Ghana’s efforts at providing safe havens for displaced persons have been commendable but largely ad hoc. The country, however, needs a comprehensive plan that includes annual targets, budgets, and well-defined strategies, according to Eric Boakye Peasah, Chairperson of the Coalition of CSOs on Migration.
Speaking to this reporter, Mr. Peasah also expressed concern that migration data in Ghana is sparse, fragmented across different agencies and organisations, and often not readily accessible. “Data continues to be a problem,” he said.
To help address these gaps, the Coalition is working to strengthen collaboration among organisations under the Coalition of CSOs on Migration in Ghana and its continental counterpart, the Coalition of CSOs on Migration in Africa, which has members from multiple African countries.
The Coalition is also lobbying African governments to ratify the African Union Free Movement Protocol, which would enable Africans to move and migrate more easily within the continent. Currently, only four countries have ratified the protocol, out of the 15 required for it to take effect.
Conclusion
For people like Amina, whose life has been uprooted and rebuilt in a place far from home, migration is not an abstract policy debate — it is the very life she lives.
Her resilience, and that of thousands like her in Tarikom and across Ghana, is a reminder that the African continent needs to do better to make migration easier for Africans. The work of organisations like World Vision Ghana, along with coalitions pushing for stronger data systems and the ratification of the AU free movement protocol, shows that change is possible.
As dusk falls over Tarikom, the camp stirs with quiet rhythms of renewal. Parents return from tending their new gardens or small trades, their hands carrying the day’s modest earnings. Children walk back from school, their uniforms dusty but their faces lit with energy and stories of the day. Soon, families gather around small fires, sharing the last meal together under the open sky. Amina sits with her daughter close by, listening to her laughter blend with that of other children. For the first time in years, she allows herself to dream: “Maybe one day, she will grow up to be a teacher. Maybe here, she will have the chance I never had.”
It is in these fragile yet hopeful moments — a farmer sowing seeds, a child returning to school, neighbors sharing land — that the story of migration becomes not only one of loss, but also of new beginnings.
A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Bolgatanga
