About 40 people suspected to be Ivorian ex-combatants have been arrested in a swoop by the National Security apparatus at the Am pain Refugee Camp in the Western Region. The suspects are currently being held for screening. The swoop, according to the Ghana Refugee Board, was to restore the civilian status of the refugee camp. This comes days after a United Nations expert panel report indicted Ghana for harboring allies of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, who have established camps in the Western Region and causing occasional incursions into Cote d'lvoire with fatalities, with the aim of destabilizing the current Ivorian government. Reports also indicate that some of the Ivorian refugees at the camp have deserted the place following the swoop. Chairman of the Ghana Refugee Board Kenneth Dzirasah declined to give details of the number of people arrested when contacted by the media. Mr Dzirasah however told Joy FM the exercise was informed by intelligence gathered over the last few weeks. He also said the swoop was in the interest of the refugees. Mr Dzirasah said those arrested were believed to be ex-combatants who escaped from the Eagle Camp in the Central Region alter a botched attempt to apprehend them. That camp has since been closed down. He suspected that those ex-combatants had infiltrated other refugee camps in the country. "The exercise was done to restore the civil character of the camp by trying to identify those we suspect are ex-combatants and are hiding in the camp," he said. He noted, "Coordinators on the ground have given them an assurance that this is an exercise done in their own ,interest -they are not the target group." Some of the refugees believed that some of the people arrested were innocent and had not been involved in any nefarious activity. The refugees, mainly supporters of former Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo, suspected that the exercise was conducted under the influence of the Ivorian government. The Government of Ghana was therefore called upon to resist the pressure being mounted by the Alassane Ouattara government; a government they claimed was currently feeling insecure.