Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has disclosed plans by the government to repatriate Burkinabe and Guinean citizens who tested positive for coronavirus in the Northern Regional capital, Tamale.
Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, April 3, Mr Nkrumah said reports that the infected citizens had been rejected by their home countries were not known to him.
“I am not aware of claims that infected citizens of Burkina Faso and Guinea have been rejected by their home countries, what I’m aware of is that the Ministries in charge of their repatriation – the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Interior – are at the moment in talks with their counterparts in Guinea and Burkina Faso to have their infected citizens repatriated for treatment,” he noted.
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The information Minister also said the Ghana had rather been required by the governments of the two countries to prove that the infected persons were indeed citizens of their countries.
“In order to have the Guineans and Burkinabes repatriated, what we’ve been asked to do by the authorities of the two countries is to substantiate or prove that indeed the infected persons are indeed citizens of their countries and that is what government is trying to do at the moment,” he added.
Some media outlets have reported on the reluctance of Guinean and Burkinabe authorities to receive eight of its citizens infected with the Covid-19 virus as Ghana attempted to repatriate them to their home countries.
The refusal of the Guinean and Burkinabe authorities to receive their citizens back into their respective countries was disclosed by the Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed, in an interview with the media.
The eight Guineans since being confirmed to have contracted the virus have been quarantined in Tamale awaiting repatriation.
