The applicants are residents along the Railway corridor and number about 3000 including children. Some of the applicants have lived and operated business at the said lands for close to 20 years. Many of the residents obtained licences from the Corporation to operate commercial businesses on some allotted portion of the railway lands and to pay their rents and taxes as expected of them to the Corporation.
Some where in June 2005, the Ghana Railway Corporation issued a notice of eviction to the applicants saying that the Government of Ghana want to concession the railway system to a private concessioner to rehabilitate and ran the existing railway system in Ghana. The Corporation intended to carryout this action without provision for alternative settlements.
CEPIL is seeking an order from the court to restrain Ghana Railway Corporation from evicting them along the railway lines without alternative settlement. The Center sees the action as a violation of the applicants’ fundamental human rights and their right to housing and livelihoods.
The case is still pending in Accra High Court.
