Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Benjamin Quashie has refuted claims by South African Immigration officials who say majority of the 300 Ghanaians repatriated were undocumented.
According to Mr. Quashie, 80% of the evacuees were documented immigrants while 20% were not.
“Let me state on record that 80% of the 300 people that we got repatriated to Ghana today were documented immigrants in South Africa, 20% were undocumented,” he clarified in an interview on TV3’s Ghana Tonight, Wednesday, May 27.
This comes on the back of a claim by South African immigration authorities on Tuesday, May 26 who say that the overwhelming majority of Ghanaians who presented themselves for repatriation at OR Tambo International Airport were found to have been living in the country illegally, raising the prospect of formal enforcement action against those affected.
Home Affairs Immigration and Law Enforcement Head Stephen van Neel confirmed the findings to reporters, revealing the scale of immigration violations uncovered during the process.
“Of the 300 individuals that were on that list, we only found 10 of them to be legal in the country. We obviously have to make sure that certain sanctions are enforced,” van Neel said, adding that authorities found widespread immigration violations among the group.
However, Benjamin Quashie dismissed the claim, noting that the South African officials are “spinning the whole story.”
“With Emmanuel Asare, the gentleman that I came to Ghana with, the first gentleman who was accosted by the group and they humiliated him and all that. Then they said his document was fake and all, we told them it was not fake.
“When we told them the document was not fake it was the same immigration department officials who said no, his documents were fake.
“We knew it was not fake and we knew very well that they were spinning the whole story,” he added.
He further explained that he travelled from South Africa to Ghana with Emmanuel Asare and went through all the immigration modalities and other processes and “nobody said he was illegal.”
“He was very legal in the country, reaffirming our stance that this whole idea of calling people undocumented and they not being able to identify what being an undocumented immigrant in South Africa, that is why we are getting here.”
He noted that he has challenged the immigration officials to prove their claim of undocumented Ghanaian immigrants in South Africa.
