Ghanaians in diaspora urged to register with consulates
Ghanaians living abroad have been urged to register with the country’s embassies, irrespective of whether they are legal or illegal immigrants.
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The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Ms Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, made the passionate appeal when she spoke with the media on the side of a two-day conference of Ghanaian Ambassadors last Saturday.
Present at the conference, which was on the theme: “Building Effective Cooperation Between the Ministry, Missions and MDAs to Enhance Ghana’s Diplomacy,” were Ghana’s ambassadors and high commissioners at the country’s 57 foreign missions as well as ambassadors in waiting.
Ms Tetteh said such registration of Ghanaians living in the diaspora would enable the foreign missions to be in touch with them and be able to offer the needed assistance in crisis situations that warranted the help of the government.
“Over the last two years we have been encouraging our Ghanaian diaspora to register with our embassies. We are not asking whether you are an illegal or legal immigrant, but you can give us a name, an email address and a phone number. So that when something happens, at least there is a contact where you can be reached, so that it is possible for you also to respond and indicate whether you are okay or you are facing difficulties,” she stated.
Ghanaians abroad without contacts
Ms Tetteh said because there were no contacts with most Ghanaians living in South Africa, Ghana’s mission there found it difficult to assist Ghanaians in need during and after the xenophobic attacks.
“We kept getting postings on social media about so-and-so who was in trouble and so-and-so who was in difficulty, but those people had never made themselves known to our mission,” she said.
Ms Tetteh said Ghana’s foreign missions had concurrent accreditation, which meant they also covered countries close by which had no missions such as the Australian mission, also being responsible for New Zealand. She, therefore, asked Ghanaians in the diaspora who were in countries without Ghanaian missions to register with the missions with oversight responsibilities for assistance in times of need.
The conference
The conference of heads of Ghana’s missions abroad held in Senchi, among other issues, discussed global topics such as the Climate Change Conference, COP 21 that was recently held in France, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ghanaians in the diaspora, as well as how to improve services to assist Ghanaians in the various countries where Ghana had embassies.
Also discussed were impending visits by Members of Parliament to foreign missions, administrative issues relating to running of the embassies, the provision of consular services, and how to ensure faster communication when crisis situations occur.
Ms Tetteh said the conference is held “at the end of the year because it gives tthe opportunity to review what has immediately taken place in the past and it also prepares us for the year ahead .