Ghana’s Ambassador to the United States of America, Baffour Adjei Bawuah has disclosed that among the category of those who have registered with the embassy for a possible evacuation, are Ghanaian government officials who were on official assignments in the United States before the closure of the country’s borders.
According to him, some 300 of the number who are stranded in the US have requested for assistance to return home. Also included in the list are some Ghanaians on government scholarships in the US.
“At the moment, about 300 people [Ghanaians] have expressed a situation where they believe that they are stranded and therefore want to come back home and…we are liaising with the US government particularly in connection with some [Ghanaian] students and some officials who came here and are stranded.”
“The students, in particular, are now living with host families and that has put a bit of pressure on these families but we are reasonably certain that by the end of this week, we would have been able to relay to the US government enough [information] for those people to be brought home,” he said in an interview monitored by ABC News.
On the COVID-19 situation, he revealed that 33 Ghanaians have died from the viral outbreak in New York alone.
“Quite a number of Ghanaians have been affected and indeed we have 33 people who have been verified to have died from the disease in New York alone,” he said.
Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Ayisi Boateng also revealed that 200 Ghanaians have also registered with the Ghanaian mission to be airlifted back home.
“We had a circular from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration that we should look for Ghanaians who are stranded so I sent the letters out and we had a little over 200 people registering to come back home which we have submitted to the Ministry for further directions and we are waiting for further directives on that,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Ghanaian Government says it is yet to decide on whether all Ghanaians abroad will be brought back home amid the COVID-19 induced border closure.
“We don’t have a decision to bring in all Ghanaians”, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Charles Owiredu noted during a press briefing today, May 26, 2020.
