Government is implementing a clear strategy to return stranded Ghanaians home from abroad in phases, Mr Charles Owiredu, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, has said.
Those stranded include Ghanaians who travelled on their own volition, government officials tasked to perform a specific task abroad and students on government scholarship who had completed their course of study.
Giving an update on the first batch of Ghanaians who returned home from Kuwait at the Minister's briefing on Tuesday, Mr Owiredu said 230 Ghanaians returned, instead of the 245 initially announced.
Upon their arrival in the country last Saturday, the deportees were tested for COVID-19 and conveyed to designated isolation centres for a 14-day quarantine whilst awaiting their test results.
They were received in accordance with immigration and health protocols conducted by Immigration and Health personnel at the Kotoka International Airport.
The Deputy Minister said Ghana’s Missions abroad gathered data on Ghanaians who expressed the desire to return home and would evacuate them in phases.
However, he could not mention the specific number of Ghanaians stranded abroad, but said they were in the thousands.
He said some were in Yemen, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Niger and that government had been supporting them with basic necessities of life while awaiting evacuation.
Mr Owiredu expressed appreciation to the National Security, Ghana Ambulance Service, Ghana Armed Forces, Ministry of Transport, National Disaster Management Organisation and the Ghana Airport Company for their cooperation in receiving the returnees.
Information Minister, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, last Friday told journalists that Ghana had granted permission to the Kuwaiti Government to deport 245 Ghanaians stranded in the Gulf State.
The decision to accept the deportees back home, amid the closure of the country's borders to prevent the importation of COVID-19, was reached at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, May 21.
This follows weeks of bilateral discussions on the status and welfare of the Ghanaian citizens after Kuwait informed Ghana about its intention to deport the illegal migrants, the cost to be borne by Kuwait.
Subsequently, the Government granted a special permit for their return in line with immigration and health regulations and protocols to prevent any threat to the Ghanaian population.
The trip, however, falls under the exemptions granted for special evacuation flights of foreign nationals during the border closure.
"The deportees will be in the custody of the State for preliminary investigations on the circumstances of their illegal stay in Kuwait,” Mr Oppong Nkrumah said.
"Upon completion of the investigations, a case by case determination will be made on the status and the further handling of each deportee in accordance with law".
He said they would be mandatorily quarantined and tested for COVID-19 and those who would test positive would be supported with treatment, while those who test negative would remain in quarantine for 14 days for a second test and released based on the results.
The Minister said the cost of quarantine and treatment would be borne by the Government.
Source: GNA
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Please why is the USA not in the list?A lot of Ghanaians and government workers stranded here need to get home.Some have health issues on medication and their medications are finished. This situation is getting worse.Government must act fact to redeem their image.
I guess that it’s a step in the right direction.meanwhile the borders must be opened so that those who can come on their own can also do that.Furthermore there are Ghanaians in the diaspora who don’t have Ghanaian passport and yet have relocated to Ghana because that’s their motherland and the only country they truly can call home,having business and family here but once in a while they will travel ,and so are also caught up behind the borders.They too must have the freedom to return home.
Over 300 Ghanaians students studying in India placed in a request for aid almost two month ago and nothing has been done, we have voiced out our intention to return home until all this is over so we can resume our studies and yet still nothing has been done. We are begging the government to at least as we wait for the evacuation ( we did not even see India in the list, asem oh) he should do good by us by sending us aid.... We sent the partition through the Ghaiaaim consulate here in India (New Delhi) to be precise.