The US Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Jackson, has said that the US is only seeking to enforce its immigration rules and not to threaten Ghana with visa restrictions.
He said America wants the government and Ghana’s embassy in the US to speed up the process for issuing travel documents to the Ghanaians scheduled for deportation.
Speaking to Citi News, Ambassador Jackson said the US has maintained a very cordial diplomatic relation with Ghana and has always sought to deport Ghanaian citizens who have overstayed their visas or broken US laws to be deported in a very safe way.
He said Ghana is currently reneging on its legal obligation to issue travel documents to Ghanaians under deportation orders which will allow them to be deported via commercial flights.
The United States Embassy in a statement issued on Wednesday indicated that the government of Ghana was not complying with international obligations regarding the issuance of travel documents to Ghanaians awaiting deportation in the USA.
The statement said the US would be forced to begin implementing visa restrictions in accordance with its laws as a responsibility owed the American people.
Some have accused the US of trying to bully Ghana by the threat, but according to Ambassador Robert Jackson, the US has fairly engaged Ghana on the matter.
“The United States in Ghana have a great relationship. It is unfortunate that almost 7,000 Ghanaians are facing deportation from the US because they have overstayed their visas or broken US law. We have been working with the government of Ghana my entire time here to repatriate people in the most humane way possible,” he said.
“The statement that the embassy issues saying that Ghana could face visa sanctions is not a threat, and I don’t want it to be a threat. What I want is for the embassy of Ghana in the United States to interview one person facing deportation and issue one travel document every business day. If the Embassy does that, we will solve this problem. It is not any more complicated than that. We’ve gone public because we see a few travel documents being issued and it stops,” he added.
Robert Jackson further noted that all his previous attempts over the last two years through Members of Parliament and previous and current government officials to address the matter have proven unsuccessful.
“Just as Ghana deports people, the United States also have the right to deport people. I’ve been talking with the government of Ghana about this for over two years. This is not [a] hasty [decision]. I talked to Members of Parliament. I talked to people in in the old government; I talk to people in the current governments. I am acting on instructions. This is not something I am initiating. We will enforce our immigration laws.”
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is yet to formally make a statement on the matter, but the Chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Frank Annor Dompreh, has said that he is hopeful that government will urgently address the challenges.
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Source: Citinewsroom.com/Ghana
