Some stranded Ghanaians in China who have expressed interest in returning to Ghana will be required to purchase the flight ticket of $1000, says the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Charles Owiredu.
Mr. Owiredu said government, after consultation and assessing of the quotations of about four lines; Ethiopia, Emirates and KLM, settled on Emirates to fly Ghanaians back. This, he explained was because Emirates quoted $1000, which was fairly good as compared to the others whose prices were high.
“Being a sensitive government, we couldn’t remain idle for people to milk Ghanaians outside, so we had to step in to ensure that any flight going to transport Ghanaians outside should be the cheapest. They are not paying the government, the embassy nor me.”
According to him, the first batch of the arrangement will be arriving in Ghana on Friday, 30th June 2020 while the second batch will be expected on Tuesday 30th June, 2020.
Complains
The government of Ghana has in recent times been working on evacuating some Ghanaians stranded abroad. Following the arrival of some twenty-five deported Ghanaians from China, some stranded Ghanaians in China have expressed their displeasure over government’s handling of the issue.
According to them, some out of the twenty-five (25) did not foot the bill of their transportation while others had to lobby their way through. “There seem to some games, it is not the case that the government has evacuated some 25 persons from China.
We heard on 8th June some flight arrangement was made for interested persons to pay $3,200. So, people backed off. The flight, we know, was going for stranded Chinese in Ghana. The plane was empty and government couldn’t even make arrangements for us to come.” One said.
Another also claimed that it was not the government that ensured their arrival in Ghana. “Some paid money and other went without paying a dime. I have four friends who went paying anything because they went to police station to make a case and added that they did not have enough to foot the bill of exiting”
Government’s response
But reacting to this, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said government’s intervention in that case was not successful. He explained, it was a private company in China that had made that arrangement for a private charter to go for some Chinese in Ghana.
The company, he mentioned, quoted $3000 per head and was not ready to negotiate even though government engaged the Chinese government.
That notwithstanding, he said the Chinese government could only allow the twenty-five persons because they were deported.
“We just completed the negotiation and meetings yesterday so today, the embassy in China will announce to Ghanaians about the fact that this arrangement has been made $1000 for a person. It is not the government who will bear the cost of evacuation”, he added.
