Coronavirus: Gov’t cautioned over calls to reopen borders for Ghanaians stranded abroad to return

The Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament Frank Anoh Dompre is urging caution over calls for the government to open the borders for Ghanaians stranded abroad because of COVID-19 to return.

There has been several calls by some Ghanaians for Government to open the borders and allow Ghanaians stranded abroad to return home but Hon Anoh Dompre says countries that have pursued that path have regretted in the end.

“Government will have to put together preparations especially in terms of quarantine, otherwise we will tow a path of clumsiness, where we will just go out there and bring everybody. I hear our minority say that let’s open the borders for a limited period. You can’t tell on authority the number of people that will troop in. If for nothing at all we have the benefit of hindsight, countries who have moved in hurriedly to pick their nationals have suffered huge loses, let’s all allow the government to go through the processes as it should”.

The Minority on several occassions has urged the Akufo-Addo government to bring home Ghanaians stranded in other countries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minority in a press briefing on May 7 noted other countries were evacuating their citizens from countries that were recording high cases.

“Many other countries are evacuating their citizens. India has done it, South Africa has done it, the UK has done it”. – the minority leader said to the media

“It is our considered view that just as our government is able to open our airports, despite the closures, for foreign nationals to be evacuated, the government should do same by providing a narrow opportunity under strict evacuation protocols of screening, testing and quarantining when necessary, in order to secure the safety of Ghanaians abroad.”

Meanwhile despite the border closure Ghana has allowed some 245 Ghanaians deported from Kuwait to return to the country.

All have been screened and tested for COVID-19 and are currently being quarantined.