A Security Analyst, Emmanuel Sowatey is faulting government for not tabling a request by the U.S government for Ghana to accept two freed Yemeni detainees from Guatanamo Bay to Parliament.
He believes presenting the request before Parliament would have generated the necessary transparency around such an important national security issue.
[contextly_sidebar id=”URDDUXUVCxqc3ziCDsidtZ8aneIOYZUo”]Ghana’s Foreign Ministry, on Wednesday announced in a statement signed by Hanna Tetteh that the country had agreed to provide humanitarian assistance to persons from Rwanda, Syria and Yemen following the crisis in the Middle East.
The United States confirmed the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby to Ghana six years after it was approved and “a number of factors, including security issues” had been examined.
Reaction to the transfer of the two and the news that the country was prepared to accept refugees from Syria and Rwanda has been largely negative with several Ghanaians questioning the country’s ability to cater for these refugees in light of the current economic crisis.
The Ghana Refugee Board has sought to calm some of those fears by announcing that the upkeep of some Syrian Refugees in Ghana will come at no cost to the tax payer.
Despite the reassurance , Emmanuel Sowatey insists government could have done wider consultations before taking the decision to accept the ex-convicts.
“I think such an initiative should have gone through Parliament even if the law does not require that the Executive does so because when it gets to Parliament, the Parliamentarians who represent all the constituencies and the two major parties will have a way of consulting their constituencies….,” he argued.
–
By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah