About 400 Ghanaians stranded abroad due to Covid-19 are expected to return home.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, made this known to the press on Tuesday, June 16.
She stated that the Ghanaians are expected to arrive on 17th and 21st of June 2020.
On the 19th of June, 195 are expected from Lebanon and the rest from Washington DC, China and New York by the end of the month.
According to her, the evacuation of stranded Ghanaians abroad has been categorized into four (4) groups namely, Ability-to-Pay, which comprises private individuals, business/corporate–sponsored employees, privately–sponsored students on exchange programmes, Government–sponsored students who are yet to complete their courses but who without any compelling reasons insist on returning home.
She said the category also covers foreign–sponsored evacuations which only require the government to provide travel documents and guarantee safe passage, as well as Ghana residence permit holders, including diplomats and their dependents.
The second category she said is the government funded evacuation which comprises government officials who travelled on official business, government–sponsored students who have completed their courses of study, as well as government–sponsored students who are yet to complete their courses but who are compelled to leave their places of residence.
The third category is the distressed and destitute comprising Ghanaians who had travelled to various countries before the advent of the pandemic but whose circumstances have been worsened due to the crisis and consequent travel bans and other restrictions imposed by different countries around the world.
The fourth group is the deportees; Ghanaians who have been scheduled for removal from various countries.
By Melvin Tarlue