COVID-19: GH₵20m spent to repatriate over 10000 Ghanaians – Ayorkor Botchwey
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, says the government spent GH₵ 19,854,960.41 to repatriate 10,025 stranded Ghanaians worldwide.
According to her, the government spent GH₵8,725,000 and $1,866,934 to bring home Ghanaian from China, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additionally, $475,895.00 was expended on evacuating those in West and Central African countries.
Furthermore, GH₵ 44,460,530.00 was spent to quarantine evacuees in 85 hotels spread across Accra, Prampram Bolgatanga, Takoradi and Kasoa.
She said this on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, July 22, 2021, noting that the expenditure was on quarantine and air tickets.
She pointed out that some private individuals mobilised some amount to support the evacuation process.
Specifically, she said, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin Central, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, mobilised $428,000 and a personal cash donation of $200,000.00 to support evacuation from Lebanon.
A cash donation of GH₵200,000.00 from Sethi Brothers was also received to subsidise the cost of quarantine of some evacuees from the United Kingdom (UK).
The cost of the hotel accommodation for the evacuees included three meals and water per day for the 14-day quarantine period.
The minister revealed that donations from individuals did not go to the COVID-19 Trust Fund.
She explained that donors such as Mr Agyapong requested his monies spent on destitute in Lebanon, while Sethi Brothers directed their donation to go to stranded Ghanaians in the United Kingdom.
The government successfully evacuated citizens from different parts of the globe using KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Middle East Airlines and Emirates Airlines.
The Ghana Air Force Casa aircraft was also used to evacuate those from West and Central African countries.
She also disclosed that 534 Ghanaians from Saudi Arabia, 233 from Qatar and 230 from Kuwait working as domestic workers in the Gulf whose plight worsened during the pandemic were repatriated. The government absorbed the cost of quarantine.
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The minister responded to a question filed by North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, who wanted to know the number of Ghanaians evacuated from foreign countries to Ghana due to the COVID-19 pandemic the cost involved.
She explained that the cabinet on Friday, May 22, 2020 approved a strategy paper presented by her ministry with a further directive to develop an evacuation implementation plan for Ghanaians.
The implementation exercise, according to her, was put into effect on May 23, 2020, in collaboration with the COVID-19 Task Force to bring these stranded Ghanaians back home.
The evacuees comprised government officials, state-sponsored students, Ghanaians who travelled before the advent of the pandemic, returnees or deportees and others.
The evacuation exercise, she noted, was undertaken in phases to ensure a well-coordinated exercise, a decision that was primarily informed by financial and logistical considerations.
Such logistical considerations included the capacity of quarantine and isolation centres and the human resource capacity of the COVID-19 task force to hold large numbers of evacuees.
The minister told parliament that the justice for human right violations for the illegal migrants in the Gulf States could not be sought since they used different airports and unapproved routes, and secured visas elsewhere.