The Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr Mahama Ayariga, has backed the decision of the government to accept West African deportees from the United States of America to Ghana.
According to Mr Ayariga, every citizen of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has the right to disembark in the country and stay for 90 days before flying to their respective West African countries, with or without an agreement with the USA.
His statement was in response to a concern raised by the Minority in Parliament over the agreement between Ghana and the USA, which allowed West African nationals who had been deported from the USA to be accepted into the country.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Friday, Mr Ayariga said:
“Every citizen of ECOWAS is entitled to sit in an aircraft and to alight or disembark in Ghana, and after 90 days can continue to their respective countries. They can do this with or without an agreement with the government of the USA.”
He, therefore, said that any agreement that allowed the country to receive other ECOWAS citizens was “a natural consequence of the right of that ECOWAS citizen to decide that they want to disembark in Ghana from the USA.”
Mr Ayariga further emphasised that it was important to commend the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for engaging the government of the USA to ensure the reversal of the visa restriction it imposed on Ghana in July this year.
The reversal of the visa restrictions by the USA now allows Ghanaian applicants to be entitled to five-year multiple-entry visas to the USA, together with other enhanced consular privileges.
Additionally, Mr Ayariga asserted that the decision by the USA was important, as the sanctions would have had a dire impact on Ghanaians living in the USA as well as on business engagements between Ghana and the USA.
“We should commend the Minister of Foreign Affairs highly for the work he has done to achieve a reversal of the visa sanctions that were imposed on Ghana by the USA. Many Ghanaians have family members in the USA, and the sanctions were going to be very inconveniencing to many of those family members,” Mr Ayariga said.
“Also, there are many businesses that we engage in with the USA, and the sanctions were going to cripple those businesses,” he added.
However, the First Deputy Minority Whip, Mr Habib Idrisu, questioned whether the reversal of the visa restrictions was tied to the agreement between Ghana and the USA that allowed for West Africans who had been deported from the USA to enter the country.
He, therefore, called on the Minister of Foreign Affairs to appear before Parliament and brief the House on the issue.
“We need to know the reason associated with the reversal of the visa restriction and whether it is tied to Ghana’s agreement to accept deported West African nationals into the country,” Mr Idrisu noted.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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