Ghana treats new UK immigration policy as "rumour"

As far as Ghana government is concerned, news of a UK immigration policy requiring Ghanaian visitors to that country to pay £3,000 as a guarantee for their return, is a rumour, a deputy information minister says.

He added that this controversial issue was also not a subject of discussion during last week’s bilateral talks between Britain’s David Cameron and Ghana’s John Mahama, during the latter's visit to the UK.

The UK Home Secretary Theresa May announced Monday, the intention was to make the immigration system more ‘selective’ and deter people from ‘overstaying’ once their visitor visa has expired.

The scheme will be piloted from November, for people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Ghana.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Top Story Tuesday, Murtala Mohammed said the UK government has not officially communicated this "policy"’ to the Ghana government.

In the absence of any official communication, government considered it inappropriate to issue a response or seek clarification from the UK Embassy. He said even the UK had not taken any firm decision on the policy.

“We might as well treat it as a rumour,” he suggested.

The minister said he was surprised at the reactions of some Members of Parliament on the matter, without first checking with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Earlier, MP for Tarkwa Nsuaem, Eugenia Kusi stated on the floor that UK residents must be treated same way when they want to visit Ghana.

MP for Manhyia South, Dr. Mathew Opoku-Prempeh pushed for a formal statement to be read on the floor of the House to signal Ghana’s unhappiness with the new policy, Elton Brobbey reported.

Nonetheless, in the deputy minister's own view, such a policy would be discriminatory.