Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States has reached a diplomatic understanding with authorities to deport 7000 Ghanaians from the country.
This follows the U.S. government’s concern that the government of Ghana was not complying with international obligations regarding the issuance of travel documents to Ghanaians awaiting deportation.
Ghana’s Ambassador to the U.S., Dr. Baffour Adjei Bawuah delivered news of the agreement to Ghanaian journalists who are in the U.S. covering the 73rd UN General Assembly.
“What unfortunately turned out to be some kind of a tussle was the fact that the [Ghanaian] Embassy was having a difficulty just endorsing, as it were, a documentation when the embassy would not even have a basic information about the people who are being deported,” said Mr. Bawuah
Ambassador Bawuah says the rift between Ghana and the U.S. is a result of Ghanaian nationals failing to register with the embassy when they enter the United States.
“It was quite unfortunate Ghanaian citizens with all the encouragement we are giving them don’t register with the embassies even though the passport says that whenever you travel, register with the nearest embassy,” said Mr. Bawuah. “So, if we are asked to sign up to documentation to have them deported, in fairness to everybody, there ought to be a significant assumption that the embassy accepts that the person is a Ghanaian, the embassy understands that there has been an infraction of the law and the embassy understands that whatever the process was, was fair on the Ghanaian. But we are not in a position to testify to the fact that the Ghanaian had an infringement, the due process was applied to the person and, therefore, the person in fairness to America could be deported.”
The Ghanaian ambassador went on to say that Ghana simply wants the Americans to apply a certain level of fairness regarding deportations and that the U.S. not pressure the Ghanaian embassy to agree to mass deportations.
“This is where we had a certain difference of opinion but we have had enough discussions for a certain kind of sanity to prevail and I can, at least, confirm that we do have a certain kind of understanding on the process and we don’t have any tension with America anymore”, said Mr. Bawuah.
