Gov’t delegation meets Pompeo to review visa sanction

The Foreign Affairs Minister is meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo to review visa restrictions imposed on Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo disclosed that Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey and Ghana’s Ambassador, Dr. Barfour Adjei-Barwuah will meet to debate the issue which has been dragging for months now.

The President who disclosed this during a Q&A at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics is hopeful the talk will clear all outstanding issues to enable the lifting of the sanctions.

The US State Department took the decision following Ghana’s refusal to provide travel documents to over 7,000 persons, alleged to be Ghanaians, detained for various offences.

Government has said the allegations of non-cooperation by the US government over the issue leading to visa sanction on Ghana are unfounded.

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, it has always cooperated and engaged the US authorities in processing and removal of Ghanaians from the US.   

That notwithstanding, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the implementation of visa sanctions on Ghana.

In a release dated January 31, 2019, the DHS explained that the sanctions are as a result of Ghana’s failure to accept its nationals that have been removed from the U.S.

“Ghana has failed to live up to its obligations under international law to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States,” Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen is quoted in the release.

“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.

But President Akufo-Addo said, “We think that the American administration got the wrong end of the stick and we have spent the last couple of months explaining that to them exactly what the realities are.”

“I hope that the meetings will have good news for us…we will cross our fingers and see…this is a democracy, and the more noise you make the better it is also,” he added. 

Source: Myjoyonline