GCL Calls For Help For Charles Joseph Dennis

The Ghanaian Community in Lebanon (G C L) on Sunday November 20TH, pleaded to its members to help raise about $650 (Six hundred and fifty US dollars) to assist a brother who?s being detained by the Lebanese immigration authority for attempting to enter Lebanon illegally.

The appeal which was made during the forty days remembrance of the late Richard Nyarko Benjamin (Bro. Ben) in Zalka, calls on all the branches of the community as well as individuals to contribute to the required amount to help purchase a one-way air ticket to send Mr. Charles Dennis home to Ghana. The decision to ask for the fund came, when on November 16, the G C L?s Head of Organizing Team, Mr. Emmanuel K. Asiedu accompanied H.E. Mr. Michel Haddad, Consul General of Ghana in Lebanon, to the immigration detention center (IDC) in Adlie to help identify the identity of Mr. Charles Dennis.

During the short interview which took place in an office full of immigration officers at the underground detention center, Mr. Charles Joseph Dennis, who initially was not willing to cooperate told the visitors after much persuasion that, he was arrested by the Lebanese authority on January 12, at the border between Syria and Lebanon with a Guatemalan passport and was detained for 8 months, after which he was deported to Guatemala.

According to him, on arriving to Guatemala where he claims he has a dual nationality, the authorities questioned the reason for his detention in Beirut, and not convinced by his alibi, sent him back to Beirut where he was again detained. He later declared himself as originally from Ghana, prompting the immigration authorities to call on the Ghana Consulate for identification.

The G C L?s delegate confirmed the identity of Charles Joseph Dennis as Ghanaian, and the immigration authority requested a travel certificate and an air ticket to deport him to Ghana.

A phone call was made to an address provided by the detainee to Kumasi, from the Consul?s office, and the community?s delegate spoke with the mother of Charles Joseph Dennis who pleaded to the community and the Consul to render any assistance possible to her son out of love and brotherhood.

Members of the community have welcomed the call with an open heart, and have promised to bring in their contributions by the end of the month. The Consul General has also promised to contribute his part.

If all goes well, Mr. Charles Joseph Dennis could be a free man again in as little as a week and a half after 9 months of detention.