The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has explained that it cannot be rushed to issue travel documents to illegal migrants in the United States of America without carrying out “due diligence.”
This due diligence is to establish if indeed the identified illegal migrants are Ghanaian nationals.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Ministry said it remained committed to ensuring that all challenges are resolved.
“The ministry wishes to place on record that it continues to engage its missions in the United States of America on the matter, and has already communicated their concerns to the US Embassy in Ghana about the need to do due diligence and establish the nationality of the deportees before they are issued with travel documents.”
“In the spirit of cooperation therefore, the Ghana Missions have the obligations to ensure that the right processes are followed to verify the identities of subjects for deportation, in order to avert challenges with the Ghana Immigration Service upon the arrival of the latter.”
“This ministry wishes to indicate its continued commitment to ensuring that the relevant measures are put in place to resolve any logistical and personnel constraints,” the statement added.
The US Embassy in a statement suggested that the government was not complying with international obligations regarding the issuance of travel documents to Ghanaians awaiting deportation in the USA.
Ghana became a signatory to the Convention on International Civil Aviation which obliges Ghana through its Embassy in Washington, D.C., and its Consulate General in New York to interview deportees on a regular basis and issue the necessary travel documents.
The statement said the US would be forced to begin implementing visa restrictions in accordance with its laws.
This prompted accusations that the US was trying to bully Ghana.
But 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 the US only wanted the government and Ghana’s embassy in the US to speed up the process for issuing travel documents to the Ghanaians scheduled for deportation.
Find below the full statement
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