Canadian High Commission 'Sabotages' ISODEC

If you are a young Ghanaian professional and single, you might not want to bother yourself applying for a visa (even if it is a temporary visa) from the High Commission of Canada to Ghana and Togo located at 42 Independence Avenue, off the Ako Adjei Interchange, Accra.

Recent spate of visa denials at the High Commission seems to suggest that in the coming weeks, months and years, Ghanaian bachelors and spinsters will have a herculean task securing visas to go to Canada regardless of the purpose of visit.



The case might even be worse for first-time travelers and those without personal assets, going by some visa denial letters which Public Agenda has sighted.

In the past week, the High Commission declined to grant visas to three staff members of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) who had been admitted to a two-week PEP-Laval Intensive Graduate School in Development Economics course being organised by the Poverty and Economic Policy (PEP) Research Network.

Indeed, two of them have been denied the visas twice within a space of one week, hence they are unable to attend the course which began on Saturday May 28 and will continue till June 12, 2011.



The refusal of visas has incensed Bishop Akolgo, Executive Director of ISODEC, who says the High Commission's actions amount to "sabotage of ISODEC's youth empowerment programme".

A letter from the Officer in charge of Citizenship and Immigration (name undisclosed) at the High Commission to the applicants stated: "Following an examination of your application, I am not satisfied that you meet the requirements of the Act and the Regulations for the reasons explained below. I am therefore refusing your application."

The officer proceeded to explain that the applicants' travel history, family ties in Canada and Ghana, and personal assets and financial status were unsatisfactory.



The applicants (names withheld) expressed surprise at the reasons because their employers had fully paid for their trip and the Institute which was running the programme had provided proof. The employers had also gone ahead to provide their financial statements to the High Commission.

Now, the applicants who are all single believe that they were denied the visas because of their marital status and their non-possession of landed property.

It is believed that the High Commission fears that once these applicants were single they could "grab" or "be grabbed" by a Canadian, in which case they may not return to Ghana.



In a related development, a Ghanaian who is studying in Canada and was on holidays was denied visa by the High Commission, consequently he had not been able to return to Canada to continue his studies.

Unfortunately, the High Commission has not been able to explain the rather ambiguous reasons accounting for the denial of visas.

When Public Agenda made contact with the High Commission, the Public Affairs Department said it could not speak to the issue and directed the paper to channel its questions to the Officer in charge of citizenship and immigration.

Unfortunately, communication with this office has to be restricted to fax and email. Even so, such communications are restricted to applicants.

Information available on the High Commission's website indicates that a person may be denied a visa, refused entry to, or removed from Canada on any of these grounds: security reasons, including espionage, subversion (attempts to overthrow a government, etc.), violence or terrorism, or membership in an organization involved in any of these; human or international rights violations, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, being a senior official in a government engaged in gross human rights violations or subject to international sanctions, committing a serious crime that would be punishable by a maximum prison term of at least 10 years in Canada, having been convicted of a crime, including driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol, organized crime, including membership in an organization that takes part in organized criminal activity, people smuggling or money laundering, health grounds, etc.