Government is advising Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine not to circumvent the official procedures of evacuation.
Any other means of repatriation by unknown entities, according to the government, could be risky.
The caution came after the arrival of over 50 Ghanaians, most of whom are students, from Romania, as part of government’s evacuation drive due to the unrest in Ukraine.
Speaking to journalists, government’s spokesperson on governance and security, Mr. Palgrave Boakye-Danquah, announced government’s plans of evacuating over 350 students by the end of the week.
“Continuously, government is working with the Ukrainian authorities to ensure the evacuation of Ghanaian students. I want to encourage all Ghanaian students to make sure they go through the right process of evacuation. There are people evacuating independent students and that puts them at risk. So they should go through the right process the government of Ghana has put in place from them”, Mr. Boakye-Dankwah said.
“This morning, we have received 50 students from Romania, which puts our numbers to 150 plus students. By the end of this week, we can account for about 350 Ghanaians that would have arrived in the country.”
Speaking on behalf of the students, Peter Akwasi Sarpong says they cannot be happy until every Ghanaian student is successfully evacuated from Ukraine by the government.
“We are not happy yet, so until we get every single Ghanaian out of Ukraine, we cannot celebrate. We just want to use the opportunity to appeal that every diplomatic string that can be pulled should be pulled to get our colleagues still stuck”.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has revealed that some of the Ghanaian students studying in Ukraine have refused to be evacuated to Ghana, though government provided them with plane tickets.
The students are unwilling to come home and have opted to stay in Poland and other countries.
With the closure of Ukraine’s airspace, the options available to Ghanaians have been countries such as Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
But the government has expressed its willingness to evacuate all Ghanaian citizens in a coordinated manner.
We won’t be responsible for Ghanaian nationals declining evacuation – Gov’t
Meanwhile, government says it will not be responsible for Ghanaian nationals turning down evacuation from Ukraine to Ghana.
The Ministry, in a statement, said “the government will only evacuate Ghanaian nationals who are willing to avail themselves for the evacuation exercise.”
In a meeting with relatives of Ghanaian nationals in Ukraine, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor-Botchwey thus urged relatives of Ghanaians in and around Ukraine “to encourage them to take advantage of this evacuation exercise to return to Ghana.”