We Have Confidence in Amarkai - Swedish Gov't

The Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, smarting under pressure from international human rights organizations for the deportation of non-Ghanaians to Ghana has confirmed that the Swedish Police and their Consul General in Accra have been called to account.

Mr. Per Holmstrom, Deputy Director, West Africa Department at the Swedish Foreign Affairs Ministry, said that the Swedish Embassy in Lagos has been asked to submit a report after a meeting between Ambassador Ekstrom and Consul General Mr. Amarkai Amarteifio.


Mr. Holmstrom emphasized that the Swedish government has full confidence in the Consul General because he has given them excellent service in his capacity as a lawyer.


"What we can say is that there is full confidence in the Consul General. He has given us excellent service in his capacity as a lawyer," he said.


He continued that eight years after Mr. Amarkai was appointed to that office, he has helped lift the economic relations between Sweden and Ghana to a point where Ghana is the second trading partner to Sweden in Africa.


This, he said, earned him the Order of the Polar Star in 1999, an award conferred on him by the King of Sweden.

When Chronicle contacted Mr. Amarkai for comments, he confirmed that the Nigerian Ambassador to Sweden had met him and that the report was to be submitted to the Swedish.


It would be recalled that the Ghanaian Chronicle published three stories concerning the deportation of non-Ghanaians from Sweden to Ghana in which Mr. Amarkai was accused of conflict of interest since his Law firm, Amartefio & Co. was paid monies in connection with legal services he rendered to the deportees.


The Chronicle reports after several months of investigations were quoted from documents including receipts Mr. Amarkai gave to the Swedish authorities.


Reacting to a recent story published in the West Africa magazine, which created the impression that he did not account for the money he received from the Swedish authorities, Mr. Amarkai said it was not true that he did not give receipts.


"Some of the receipts were exhibited in the documentary screened on Swedish Television"

Mr. Amarkai said part of the money, which the Swedish Immigration officers paid to them (referring to his law firm), was given to those deportees who opted to go home.


It must, however, be explained that the story of the deportation of non-Ghanaians to Ghana became the subject of a documentary in Ghana by Swedish journalists.


While admitting that something might have gone wrong in the course of such deportations, Mr. Amarkai said some of the non-Ghanaians who were deported to Ghana travelled to Sweden using Ghanaian passports.


He also said the report by West Africa magazine, which suggested that about 20 refugee-seekers were deported to Ghana, was grossly exaggerated.


He said such difficult cases, which attracted his personal intervention, do not exceed an average of four a year since 1994.

He said there were no deportees in the years 2000 and 2001 respectively.


As reported by the Chronicle last year, Mr. Amarkai said only one of all deportees to Ghana ended up in prison.


He said Peter Ekwiri was sent to prison on charges that did not relate to his deportation. Peter Ekwiri, who was detained at the Osu Police Station, on arrival in Ghana, told Chronicle investigators last year that he acted violently at the station because he was denied food.


For this reason he was sent on remand where he was left to rot.