Ghana's Commissioner of Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Emile Short, Friday cautioned foreign governments to be circumspect in accepting claims by illegal immigrants in their bid to regularise their entry.
Short, in an interview with Ghana News Agency in Accra, said foreign officials often failed to consult or ignored the advice of countries against which claims are made, thereby falling prey to the motive of the asylum seekers.
He was reacting to a case in which a Ghanaian illegal immigrant, calling herself Adelaide Abankwa, was granted political asylum in the US for two years, after claiming that she would be compelled to undergo genital mutilation if she returned home.
Abankwa's claim generated widespread publicity and attracted the sympathy of members of the US Congress and celebrities, like First Lady Hillary Clinton, after she was arrested at JFK International Airport in New York in March 1997.
She entered the United States with false immigration papers.
Subsequently, the Board of Immigration Appeals granted a petition for her to remain in the US on the grounds that she had good reason to fear genital cutting if she returned to Ghana.
"Adelaide Abankwa" was later found to be an impostor and her story a hoax after an Immigration and Naturalisation Service investigation revealed her real identity as 31-year-old Regina Norman Danson, a former worker of Biriwa Hotel in the Central Region.
Short said the case should be a lesson to "gullible" overseas authorities that always carry negative perceptions about the culture and traditional practices of African nations.
"The commission is not surprised at the revelation that the allegations by the woman have proved to be false," he said.
"We had our grave misgivings about these allegations when they were made and we were surprised at how the political authorities and women's groups in the US rallied to her cause with such passion without conducting proper investigations in Ghana to verify the truth of the story," he added. "You know, they're always putting us in bad light, thereby quickly falling into traps set by self-seeking immigrants."
He said it is important that the foreign authorities do "proper" investigations into claims by asylum seekers by referring the matter to their home countries but not just take the face value of the allegations.
"The authorities in the West should know by now that some Africans seeking greener pastures in their countries would put up some of the most outrageous and ingenious claims about conditions in Africa to support their unwarranted claim," he lamented.
It therefore behoves on them to crosscheck these with embassies or home institutions.
Short confirmed that the woman hails from Biriwa, where female circumcision is not traditionally practised.
He further confirmed that she worked with the Biriwa Beach Resort for many years, saying that if the proprietors of the Resort had been contacted, they would have provided invaluable information, which would have debunked her claim.
Meanwhile, reports say the real Adelaide Abankwah, a former college student, whose passport was stolen in Ghana four years ago, has lived quietly in Germantown, Maryland, fearing deportation because of her own immigration problems, the Post reported. "She wants her name back for herself," it said.
"I feel like I'm being buried alive," the 27-year-old said in an interview. "I still want my name...I refuse to let her (Danson) take that name."
