Communiqué of the French Embassy

Following some remarks recently made on this site under the title « French pupils stranded in Ghana », this Embassy would like to make the following statement.

On 18 august, this Embassy had to seize the passport and identity cards of Ismail, Rime and Sarah Sinare, as, according to the documents they provided, there were serious doubts as to their French nationality. This was confirmed by instructions of the French authorities on 7 september.

At the request of the father of the children, who wanted them to come to Ghana, this Embassy twice interceded with the authorities in France for those children to be able to go back to Ghana in the family of their father, as the French administration was contemplating placing them in a French family as a consequence to the death of their mother.

This Embassy has been informed that the children are in the process of beginning their courses at the French school in Accra. This Embassy will naturally help them in their demarche in the measure of its possibilities.

Without any connexion with this matter, some allegations have been made on this occasion on certain aspects of the French integration policy. This Embassy can only regret such amalgamation and this biased use of the difficulties of a family for obvious political ends.