The Zimbabwean Department of Immigration last Tuesday detained Kwasi Adu Amankwah, former Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) upon his arrival in Harare.
The intervention of the Zimbabwean President, Emmerson Mnangagwa, aka ‘Crocodile,’ however reserved what could have been the deportation of the veteran trade unionist.
Mr. Adu Amankwah was in the Southern African country for an official engagement with the International Trade Union Congress (ITUC), whose affiliate is the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Union (ZCTU).
He is said to have been picked up by local immigration officials as soon as he checked into his hotel in the city and held in a holding centre before being returned to the Robert Mugabe International Airport.
It was thought that preparations were on for his deportation to Accra until an intervention by the president.
The president’s intervention followed a correspondence from the ITUC.
Circumstances leading to his arrest are not known in a country where the government is jittery about such international engagements.
The Ghanaian’s to-do-list include meeting with the Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Part of the correspondence to the Zimbabwean President and authored by the Deputy Secretary General of the ITUC, Adrian Akouete read, “This is to bring to your attention that Adu Amankwah, a Ghanaian, has been taken from a local hotel where he checked in upon his arrival…we fear that he is being processed for deportation. We nevertheless hope that will not be the case.”
The correspondence continued “we ask that your government takes the necessary steps to ensure that Adu Amankwah is released and allow him to continue with his mission. The least appropriate thing will be that the Zimbabwean Department of Immigration will tender an unreserved apology for this action and make genuine efforts to prevent reoccurrence.”
Comrade Kwasi Adu Amankwah is said to have been cleared to carry on with his mission in Zimbabwe.
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