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The Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has disclosed that the government of Ghana will continue to engage the United States government on the latter's recent decision to place visa restrictions on the former.

He says it is just a matter of communication because the Ghana government cannot entirely accept their conditions when they have not indeed verified the claims being made by the US government.

Speaking on Okay FM’s 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the "figure" being given out by the government of US is "too huge" and that government "cannot even ascertain" whether they are all Ghanaians.

"You know, we don't know the orientation of these people. Government will have to verify to know their country of origin before government will even decide to accept.

"Ghanaians who will want to travel should not be worried, they can go about their processes as government continues to engage the US government over this travel ban. It is only when government is unable to resolve this matter that i think there will be further restrictions.

"But it will never get to that because government is in talks with them and i know the matter will be resolved amicably," he assured.

Background

The US’ Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of State issued visa sanctions on Ghana earlier this month citing “lack of cooperation” on the part of Ghana government in accepting its citizens ordered removed from the US.

In a statement, the US’ Homeland Security said Ghana has “denied or unreasonably delayed accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States.”

As a result, the US has temporarily placed visa restrictions on certain categories of applicants from Ghana, including domestic employees of Ghanaian diplomats posted in the US until cooperation is deemed satisfactory.

“The United States routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting U.S. citizens when asked, as appropriate, as do the majority of countries in the world, but Ghana has failed to do so in this case. We hope the Ghanaian government will work with us to reconcile these deficiencies quickly,” the Secretary of Homeland Security added.