Treatment of deportees ‘condemnable’ – Ablakwa

The way and manner undocumented Ghanaian migrants who were deported from the United States of America (USA) back to Ghana on Wednesday were treated by authorities there is condemnable, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu, has said.

Almost 80 Ghanaian illegal immigrants in the United States were deported. They arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) in Accra on Wednesday, 14 June in handcuffs. The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), and the Ghana Police Service screened the deportees upon arrival.

The deportees, most of whom had no records on them, are the second batch of immigrants to be brought back since Donald Trump became President of the US. There have been reports that they were handcuffed from the US till they reached Ghana.

Speaking on this matter in an interview with Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on 505 on Class91.3FM on Wednesday, Mr Ablakwa said: “Even in international law, it is important to also recognise that even when you have arrested a criminal caught even in the act, you will need to respect his rights.

“Everybody has rights, it doesn’t matter if the person is a convict or whether the person is caught in the act, so the report that we are all picking up about the dehumanising way in which these Ghanaians were treated, arrested, handcuffed and continued to be handcuffed in this long distance flight and arrived at the Kotoka International Airport in handcuffs should be condemned.

“These are fellow human beings and you don’t treat them that way; even deportees have rights.

“I want to stress that we all have to condemn the way these deportees have been treated. Inasmuch as we all concede that the deportees have questions to answer, it is important that these deportees’ rights are respected. So far, it appears that their rights have been violated and they have not been treated in a humane manner. We expect our Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister to speak out about these matters.”