Gitmo 2 refugee status cannot expire in July – Baako ‘corrects’ Ayariga

General News of Wednesday, 31 January 2018

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2018-01-31

Editor-in-chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper says the refugee status granted the two Gitmo detainees cannot expire in July as has been trumpeted by the Minority.

Malik Kweku Baako Jnr. says Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central who made the revelations seems to have gotten the interpretation of the document wrong.

Speaking on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, the veteran journalist said “Refugee status cannot expire. Perhaps what he meant was that their travel documents will expire and that will expire in August.”

“The refugee status is distinct from that [travel document]. They are two different things people should not confuse it,” he stressed.

He continued that although Ken Dzirasah’s [former board chair of the refugee board] letter granting them a refugee status was issued on 21 July 2016, “the travel documents given to the two which is under the convention of UN refugees was issued on August 2, 2016 with an expiry date of August 1, 2018.

Revelations about the previous government granting refugee status to the two Yemenis – Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammed Salih Al-Dhuby – got Ghanaians worried.

The two were granted refugee status by the previous administration just months after they were transferred to Ghana by the United States Government following an agreement entered into with the erstwhile Obama administration.

Even more worrying, for many, was the claim by the government that the refugee status made it difficult for them to make or take any actions towards the repatriation of the two from the country.

It has been accusation and counter-accusations with officials of the previous government demanding a solution to the problem from the current one because according to them, the Akufo-Addo government had promised during 2016 campaign activities to deal with the matter if voted into power.

Mr Baako criticised the previous government’s appointees’ commentary on the issue, especially when it all began with them.

“They are walking into quicksand,” he said, adding “if I were them, I’ll keep quiet on this matter. They have no case.”

He also criticised, Ododiodiodio MP, Nii Lante Vanderpuye for saying the Foreign Affairs Minister should have added an exit clause to the agreement before bringing it to parliament.

The MP had said “Is she [Foreign Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey] telling me that when she brought the agreement to parliament for ratification, she looked at the agreement and there were no exit clauses and she did not find it expedient to add them? This whole thing baffles me.”

Mr Vaderpuye also rebuffed government’s stance that its hands are tied, saying “…under our legal regime, no law in this world prevents revoking of refugee status”.

Mr Baako is baffled at the comments.

“This is serious. That the foreign minister on her own could have added exit clauses to the agreement before bringing it to parliament for ratification is incredible. Absolutely incredible,” he said.

For him, this is not the time to discuss exit clauses, because “If we want to debate exit clauses, then it should have been in the agreement from the onset. That was when they should have pushed for an exit clause.”