Former Italian immigrants demand pension

Mr. Samuel Nyame, General Secretary of the Association of Former Ghanaian Workers in Italy (ASTAG), has called on the government of Italy to pay members of the Association their pension.

The Association consists of 1,040 Ghanaians who migrated to Italy but returned to Ghana a decade ago after the Italian government passed a law in 1995 to scale down the number of non-European Union workers in Italy.

Addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, Mr. Nyame said members of the Association took advantage of the law and returned home because the Italian government presented a good package.

He said the law stated that non-European Union workers who decided to depart from Italy for good shall be entitled to a full refund of their social security contribution with the total amount attracting 5%.

Mr. Nyame said the Association had tried to get the attention of the Italian government to pay what was due them but these attempts had failed and gave the Ghana government a two-week ultimatum to resolve the issue or members of the Association would go on demonstration.**