UN confab genuine; United Ambassadors insists
United Ambassadors, the organisers of the model UN conference which some Ghanaian students had made the attempt to attend but had their visas cancelled by the US Embassy has debunked claims that it is not genuine.
According to the organisation, its conference was “a legitimate one and the reason delegates' visas were denied was due to an issue completely out of our hands and has nothing to do with United Ambassadors. The US Embassy looks at multiple factors before it declines a visa”.
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The organisation denied the claims in a rejoinder issued by its Legal Department.
The US Embassy had told the Daily Graphic that it did not discuss individual visa issues.
Some of the affected students told the Daily Graphic that the embassy had not been fair to them.
Read also: US Embassy revokes visas of 71 Students attending UN confab
Retraction
“We demand that you issue a public retraction and apology, immediately, and to ensure that all facts are thoroughly checked and verified
“United Ambassadors is an international educational organisation officially registered in the State of New York and California, USA, that provides world leading conferences and educational programmes of the highest calibre and accuracy at simulating the United Nations,” it said in reaction to the Daily Graphic publication of last Monday which had drawn attention to the revocation of the visas by the US Embassy on suspicion that the conference was not genuine.
Providing a link to its Facebook page, the statement said: “We are sending you this email from the United Nations Headquarters in New York where we are currently conducting our UN4MUN workshop, in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Public Information.”
No guarantee
It said while the organisation might issue invitation letters to its conferences, invitation letters could not secure or guarantee that the US Embassy would grant visas and/or guarantee entry into the country of the conference venue.
“Conference invitation letters are only supplementary documents. If the applicant does not qualify for a tourist visa, the invitation letter cannot change or impact the visa application results,” it said.
Participants
It said to date United Ambassadors had welcomed delegates and staff from more than 140 countries to its various conferences, workshops, training camps and programmes.
“Programme locations: Since its inception, United Ambassadors has held training programmes, conferences and workshops in Qatar, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai; the UAE, Sharjah, Egypt; Moscow, Russia; London, UK; New York, USA; Geneva, Switzerland, and more.
“Our website has been visited by over 250,000 viewers from around the world and the number of both viewers and subscribers is increasing by the day.
“Social Media: Our combined social media following increases by the hour and we have engaged nearly 50,000 followers from every continent around the world on various channels.
“Our various programme team members have come from every inhabited continent around the globe. Our success stories, delegate features and delegate feedback have consistently demonstrated the extent to which our programmes have affected the lives of students, teachers and the youth who are on their way to becoming tomorrow’s leaders,” it said.