Ranking Member of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has appealed to government to issue new policy directives streamlining visa approval processes.
According to him, the directives will ensure strict compliance by consular officials in China and prevent Chinese national from entering the country to carry out illegal activities such as galamsey. He noted that the latest Performance Report from Ghana’s Embassy in China covering the 2nd Quarter of 2022 reveals that a “massive 931 Ghanaian visas were issued to the Chinese” just between April and June this year.
Mr Ablakwa noted that with this trend and by close of 2022, a staggering 4,000 visas would’ve been issued.
“May I reiterate my consistent appeals to Ghana’s President and our Foreign Minister to urgently issue new policy directives streamlining visa approval processes for the strict compliance of consular officials in China — this ought to be a crucial intervention in the face of the current galamsey crisis.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
Contained in a Facebook post made today, October 13, 2022, Mr Ablakwa recounted that former Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Shi Ting Wang, once remarked that Ghanaians must acknowledge their role in the menace if the fight was to be successful.
According to him, Mr Wang stated that Chinese national do not know where Ghana’s gold is and his government does not issue visas for Chinese people coming to Ghana.
“Ghanaians issue the visas. Ghanaians aid the Chinese to where they can find your gold. Why are Chinese not doing illegal mining in South Africa where there is also a lot of gold… because they cannot do that there and the locals don’t support such illegalities?”
Shi Ting Wang
The ranking member on parliament’s foreign affairs committee explained that “overwhelming and unimpeachable evidence” available to him confirms that a good number of these visa applications are of “dubious and fraudulent validity and should not have been entertained by our Missions in China”.
Ghana embassy in China denies allegation
It will be recalled that on September 24, 2022, Ghanaian Ambassador to China, Dr Winfred Nii Okai Hammond, clarified that the Ghanaian consulate in China has nothing to do with the Aisha Huang’s dealings in galamsey. He highlighted that the visa the galamsey queen used in making her return to Ghana was not issued by his outfit.
Mr Hammond emphasized that the Chinese national who was deported from Ghana to China in December 2018 for allegedly engaging in illegal mining activities in the Ashanti Region “did not take any visa from us”.
Dr Hammond made these remarks when some Chinese investors paid him a visit in his office, to among others, discuss issues of common interest and mutual benefit, including investment in Ghana, job creation for Ghanaians and transfer of technology to encourage economic growth.
He noted that it was necessary to respond to some unfounded allegations made against the Ghana Embassy for facilitating the return of Miss Huang to Ghana by issuing her a visa. Dr Hammond expressed the need for the country’s law to be applied in the galamsey case.
He further revealed that Aisha Huang’s case must be handled with utmost caution in order not to jeopardise the healthy relationship between Ghana and China.
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