Thousands of tired and hungry Liberian war refugees were given a safe haven in Ghana Tuesday and allowed to leave a rusty, over-crowded freighter that had been stranded at sea for 10 days.
Some 3,000 to 4,000 refugees, desperate to end what a U.N. spokesman described as a "voyage of the damned," poured off the Bulk Challenge in the western port of Takoradi after authorities reluctantly gave in to international pleas for mercy."Ghana believes that these innocent civilians should not be made to suffer any more for the failure of their political and factional leaders," said the deputy foreign minister, Mohamed Ibn Chambas.
Only a day earlier, Ghana had sent the ship packing for a second time, joining Ivory Coast in declaring it could not support any more Liberian refugees on its soil. More than 350,000 Liberians have fled to neighboring Ivory Coast and 15,000 to Ghana to escape 61/2 years of civil war at home.
Ghanaian officials said a new camp would be built for the refugees who were allowed off the vessel tuesday but warned Liberia that it would not accept any more. "There is a limit to our endurance," Chambas said.
Since May 5, the leaking, overcrowded Bulk Challenge had sailed in search of a West African sanctuary for the refugees.
On Thursday, officials in the Ivory Coast forced the leaking ship back to sea after letting it dock for repairs. From Ivory Coast it sailed to Ghana, where it took on supplies before being forced out on Sunday and Monday.
As it set off from Ghana on Monday, 147 Liberians and 126 Ghanaian refugees jumped 10 feet from the teeming deck to a Ghanaian navy barge that had been used for medical examinations.
One of them confirmed reports that crewmen forced sick and hungry passengers to pay for food that agencies had donated.