I didn’t cancel arrival visa for Chinese nationals – Foreign Minister

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, says she has no hand in the revocation of visa on arrival service to Chinese nationals who visit Ghana for business or any other purpose.

According to her, visa on arrival service is not a responsibility of the Foreign Affairs Ministry and therefore, does not know what triggered the need for such action against Chinese nationals.

Nevertheless, she believes strongly that the reasons assigned to the cancellation of visa on arrival service to Chinese nationals as espoused by the Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs were valid.

Visa on arrival service, she said lies in the bosom of the Minister for the Interior. The Foreign Affairs Ministry, she noted, only issues visas in their missions outside abroad.

“Visa on arrival has nothing to do with the Foreign Affairs Ministry. It is under the Interior Ministry. I have no clue and I cannot give you any answer to it but he (Minister for Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs) gave reasons why and I think that the reasons he gave were instructive so it is not just that he came out of the blue and said that visa on arrival for Chinese nationals coming to Ghana have been cancelled. He gave reasons why and the reasons he gave are valid reasons,” she noted in an interview with journalists of the Parliamentary Press Corps, Thursday.

The Government of Ghana on Tuesday, October 24, 2017, announced the cancellation of Emergency Visa or Arrival Visa for Chinese nationals as part of the fight against illegal mining.

Emergency Visa Policy was introduced by the Ghana Immigration Service to cater for visitors/business people who travel at short notice from countries where Ghana has no mission or consulate.

The policy authorizes visas to be granted on arrival at the airport or other entry points subject to specific immigration requirements. This policy has been abused with many Chinese nationals taking advantage to come to Ghana to engage in galamsey.

However, according to the Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Kofi Dzamesi, the visa on arrival service will no more be available to Chinese nationals.

“The Chinese nationals come to the country to engage in galamsey, they defecate into our rivers and pollute our river through illegal mining,” Mr. Dzamesi noted.

He continued: “But now, the Arrival Visa which the former government granted the Chinese have been cancelled. So if you are a Chinese and come to Ghana without Visa, you will go back to your China land.”

“After all, when we go to China, they don’t give us arrival Visa so why should we (Ghana) give them arrival Visa. So, that arrival Visa has been cancelled. Any Chinese who wants to come to Ghana should go to Beijing, Ghana’s Embassy to apply for Visa so that we scrutinize why that person wants to come to Ghana,” the minister said at a durbar organized for chiefs in galamsey-proned areas at Kwahu Mpraeso Traditional Council in the Eastern Region.