These Ghanaians and some other black Africans were reported to have been subjected to inhumane treatment after giving away their life’s earnings and making torturous journeys through the Sahara hoping to make it big in Europe.

Two chartered flights full of Ghanaians touched down at the Kotoka International Airport on Wednesday night.

Citi News’ Caleb Kudah and Philip Nii Lartey who kept vigil to interact with the returnees, reported that “after touching down around 9.45pm, the returnees spent extra three hours going through immigration formalities.”

One of them passed out in the process, and was whisked to the Airport hospital for medical attention.

They were spotted in uniformed cardigan like sports men ready for a match, only that they did not look fit enough.

For some of them, it was as if a thin sheet of skin was drawn over their skeletons with bushy hair and mustache. They looked starved, and the sight of home with food at last, was a huge relief.

Some gave their lifetime savings to ‘connection men’, hoping to make a fortune once they get to Libya or Italy.

Some spent as much as 3,000 dollars, but they returned with nothing except with dehumanizing experiences  from their fellow human beings in a foreign land.

Recounting his experience, one of the returnees said: “The food that they were giving us did not satisfy us. They use to beat us. The treatment is very bad”

The returnees negated claims by the Foreign Affairs Ministry that no Ghanaian was sold into slavery, saying “they sold most of them, but I was not sold.”

Surprisingly, not only youthful Ghanaians largely in their 20s were aboard the two chartered flights.

The Country Director for International Organisation for Migration in Ghana, Sylvia Lopez, revealed that “there were two children” who joined the returnees to Ghana.

Though Sylvia is unable to tell how many more Ghanaians are still in Libya, she is certain several hundreds still need to be rescued.

“There is a substantial number of people and considering the situation in Libya at the moment; the difficult living conditions in the detention centres, we really are in a humanitarian crisis situation, and it is extremely important to get these people out of Libya as soon as possible. “

Make Libya crisis a priority – African leaders told

In a related development, deliberations at the ongoing EU-AU summit in Ivory Coast has been dominated by discussions on the happenings in Libya.

Leaders from European and African nations have all condemned reports of the slave trade in Libya, and have called for an end to the practice.

The President of the European Union, Donald Tusk, in his presentation on the development, tasked African leaders to do more to resolve the problem.

“The recent reports about the treatment of Africans, especially young people by smugglers and traffickers are horrifying. Over 500 people drowned in the Mediterranean. We cannot accept this and we also cannot accept the narrative that Africa and Europe are against each other.”

“The worst we can do is to start the blame game. What we need now are common solutions and a stronger cooperation to save lives, protect people and allow them to live in dignity.  The above remarks also apply to the current situation in Libya which needs from our sides; both European and African, our help, not our condemnation.”

Foreign Affairs Committee to brief Parliament on crisis 

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, has directed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the house to liaise with the Foreign Affairs Ministry to ensure the sector Minister briefs the house urgently on the situation with Ghanaians in Libya.

The directive follows deliberations on the development in Parliament on Wednesday.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The two, Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, who were in detention for 14 years after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda, were brought to Ghana in 2016, for a period of two years, after which they are expected to be reintegrated in their home country, Yemen.

[contextly_sidebar id=”5NDghF8Oq5uxEHOveRuqTtgTpjmGJN3Q”]But two Ghanaian citizens, Margaret Bamful and Henry Nana Boakye, subsequently sued the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, together with the Minister of Interior, accusing then-President John Mahama of illegally bringing in the two without recourse to the laws of the land.

The plaintiffs were seeking among other reliefs, a “declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana acted unconstitutionally by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby.”

After staying in the country for over a year, the Supreme Court a few weeks ago declared as unconstitutional the hosting of the two detainees without parliamentary  approval of the agreement for their stay.

The court in its judgement thus asked government to put before Parliament an agreement that will legalize the two detainees’ stay in the country, or they risk being repatriated within three the next months.

Following the Supreme Court’s judgement, President of the Conference, Reverend Philip Naameh, has told Citi News the two should be repatriated once the Supreme Court has made provision for such a move.

“Once it makes provision for the detainees to be taken back to the country I will support that because there might have been a reason why US did not want the people to come back to the US, so if the ruling of the Supreme Court is that either it goes back to Parliament so that it is legalized or the people are taken to the US , I will think that it is the most logical thing because we were saying we did not see that it was legal enough and it has been confirmed by the Supreme Court ruling and therefore if they will take them back to the US, we will have no issue with that.”

The Conference had earlier cautioned that hosting the two in the country was dangerous. The Council, in a statement had indicated that, the move posed a major security threat to Ghana.

“…We expect our Government to focus a lot of attention on helping to secure peace and security in the country by dealing with the above-mentioned and related challenges and not to risk the security of our land by hosting two former terrorists,” the Conference intimated.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline,com/Ghana

The post Send Gitmo 2 back to US – Catholic Bishops appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the court, the interpretation of article 75 and 83 of the constitution with regards to the substantive case, was monumental, and therefore more time was needed to give consideration to it.

[contextly_sidebar id=”AZlQjMpvejPZaS7GuqvrpxnDeTbzJOJL”]The court has since set the 22nd of June 2017 for the judgment.

It further ordered the two parties in the case to file submissions on whether the country could abrogate an international agreement if it goes contrary to the laws.

Two Ghanaian citizens, Margaret Bamful and Henry Nana Boakye, sued the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, together with the Minister of Interior, accusing then President John Mahama of illegally bringing in the two former Gitmo detainees, without recourse to the laws of the land.

The plaintiffs are seeking among other reliefs a “declaration that on a true and proper interpretation of Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, the President of the Republic of Ghana acted unconstitutionally by agreeing to the transfer of Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby.”

Ex-Guantanamo detainees pose no security threat – US Embassy

Ghanaians met government’s decision to host the two as a threat to national security, but Government insisted the two men posed no threat.

In January 2016, the United States Embassy in Ghana, assured Ghanaians that the presence of the two former detainees, posed no threat to the security of the country.

“The two detainees that were transferred to Ghana have already arrived…we don’t have access to the specifics of their whereabouts, you have to go to the government of Ghana for that,” Public Affairs Counselor at the US Embassy in Ghana, Daniel Fennell said.

The two Guantanamo bay detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, had been in detention for 14 years, after being linked with terrorist group Al-Qaeda.

Meanwhile, Nana Agyei Baffour, has told journalists that they will follow the court’s order to file submissions on whether or not the country could abrogate an international agreement because it infringes on its domestic laws.

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By: Fred Tettey Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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