Mahmud Umar Muhammed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby
Parliament yesterday witnessed a heated debate over the continued stay of the two ex-Guantanamo Bay detainees, popularly known as ‘GITMO 2,’ whose legitimate two-year stay in the country – per the agreement between the governments of Ghana and the United States – expired on January 6, 2018.
The minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) vociferously called for the immediate repatriation of the two Yemeni detainees – Mahmud Umar Muhammed Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby – to their country because they could be security threat to the nation.
However, the majority New Patriotic Party (NPP) said until the two willingly accept to leave the country, the government cannot force them to leave since the NDC government, which accepted them as detainees, decided to change their status to refugees.
The debate arose after the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, had told parliament about the option left for the government regarding the agreement between the two governments – not specifying any exit arrangements for the two detainees.
The minister said that the government has two hurdles to clear as far as the agreement is concerned.
“The government of Ghana is to take measures to facilitate the integration of Mr Bin Atef and Mr Al-Dhuby into the Ghanaian society. What this means is that while the United States’ obligations end after two years, Ghana’s obligations continue even after that,” Ms Shirley Ayorkor Botchway told the house.
According to her, once the erstwhile NDC government granted the GITMO 2 refugee status without recourse to the agreement, the implication is that the two have attained refugee status to stay in the country in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees (1951) and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees, as well as the Refugee Law of 1992.
“The most essential component of refugee status and of asylum is protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear prosecution,” Ms Ayorkor Botchway said, adding that it would be wrong for the government to deport the two to Yemen – their country of origin – where there is civil and religious war amidst great instability.
She said currently there is no proper government in place in Yemen to also agree to accept the two and provide them with the requisite security and protection that they would need.
The Minister for Defence and MP for Bimbilla, Dominic Nitiwul, said the previous NDC government should be blamed for creating this avoidable problem.
According to him, even when the NDC government went into the agreement with the United States of America, it did not inform the Ghanaian people and also refused to bring the agreement to parliament for ratification.
Mr. Nitiwul said since nobody knew of the agreement, the NDC went ahead and changed the status of the two, even when they needed to be treated as suspects and kept under surveillance.
He said the GITMO 2 had got married and living normal life as refugees in the country and so the government could not just force them to leave the country without them giving their consent.
The majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonssu, wondered why the minority members were calling for the immediate deportation of the refugees, arguing that the NDC MPs, when in government, defended the presence of the two GITMO guys.
He said the NDC MPs went further to argue that their government was compassionate to accept them and help them to integrate into the society since they didn’t pose any security threat to the nation.
“It should rather be the NDC MPs, who must even support their continuous stay in the country because they had said that their government accepted them on compassionate and humanitarian grounds,” the majority leader said.
The MP for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga and the minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, had argued that the NPP in opposition had branded the GITMO 2 as terrorists and so their continuous stay in the country would be a threat to national security and should therefore be sent back to their country of origin.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr