Fifty four more Ghanaian students have arrived at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Monday March 7, 2022 from war hit country, Ukraine as part of evacuation efforts by government.
They form part of the 6th batch to have returned home bringing the number to over 150 Ghanaians who have arrived.
About 300 Ghanaian students are expected in Accra from Ukraine by end of this week.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration insists that Ghanaian nationals who do not respond favourably to the opportunity to be evacuated from Ukraine will be on their own.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Government will not be responsible for those who decline the opportunity to be evacuated,” the Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, March 5.
Since Ukraine was invaded by Russian forces on Thursday, February 24, government has responded to calls from stranded Ghanaians, especially students, to be brought back home.
Most of them were facilitated to move to neighbouring countries such as Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Czech Republic, where they have been visited both by the Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and a Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, Thomas Mbomba.
A few of them, however, decided to remain in the war-hit Eastern European country instead of returning home.
The Ministry said despite commitment to evacuate Ghanaians in the neighbouring countries and those still trapped in Ukraine, “government will only evacuate Ghanaian nationals who are willing to avail themselves of the evacuation exercise and return to Ghana”.
The Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Thomas Mbomba had met with stranded Ghanaian students in Bucharest, Romania, Hungary and Poland as part of his three-country official visit.
He explained the need for them to return home and government of Ghana’s support to re-unite them with their families in the interim, as the government fashions out a way forward for their studies.
By Vincent Kubi