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Mr Jon Benjamin (right) speaking to Graphic Online’s Kwame Asare Boadu
Mr Jon Benjamin (right) speaking to Graphic Online’s Kwame Asare Boadu

We reject visa applications for tangible reasons - Jon Benjamin

The British High Commission approved more than 50,000 visas for Ghanaian applicants in the last three years out of about 100,000 applications it received, the outgoing British High Commissioner, Mr Jon Benjamin, has said.

He, therefore, rejected claims that the High Commission took delight in rejecting visa applications by Ghanaians.

In an interview with Graphic Online in Accra, Mr Benjamin said the commission had every reason to refuse the remaining 50 per cent of applicants.

Citing reasons for the refusal of applications for visa, he said, “We do see, on a daily basis fraudulent applications, fake birth certificates, fake bank statements, fake employer’s letters, fake references and untruths in the visa application forms.”

Based on that, he said, there was no basis for anyone to fault the commission because it only implemented the laws and procedures of the United Kingdom (UK) Home Office.

Recent visa fraud

With regard to the recent visa fraud case involving some Members of Parliament (MPs), Mr Benjamin said "you know, the letter was not leaked by me.”

Three sitting MPs and a former MP were recently cited by the British authorities for allegedly perpetrating visa fraud using their diplomatic passports.

The MPs were said to have used an unauthorised person and their diplomatic passports to apply for visas for persons who travelled to the UK and did not return as stipulated in their visas.

A confidential letter addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye, by the British High Commission, gave the names and details of the abuses by the MPs in question.

Mr Benjamin explained that the letter was a British government letter and such a letter could not have been written without evidence to back it.

“One of the persons mentioned in the letter has contested it but I am not going to go into details, but I am afraid if you describe someone on your visa application as your wife and she is not your wife, if you describe someone as your daughter when she is your niece or vice versa, if you facilitate a visa from a position of great power for someone who then overstays the visa and becomes an illegal migrant, that is visa fraud.

“So when other people say it is not fraud, that is up to them because we are talking about UK laws here which make it fraud,” he said.

Security

Mr Benjamin mentioned some behind-the-scenes diplomatic discussions on fighting terrorism in Ghana, stating that, “I hope Ghana remains free from this.”

“There is a very good amount of counter-terrorism cooperation going on between the UK and Ghana and we are happy to share our lessons and operational procedures with Ghana,” he added.

He indicated that there was no fool-proof measure to prevent terrorism but it was important that there was high level vigilance, since it took only a person or few to strike.

Surviving without aid

Mr Benjamin expressed Britain’s support to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's quest for a Ghana beyond aid.

He said the original aim of an aid programme should be to assist the recipient country to develop to the point when it did not need the aid anymore.

“So the UK development cooperation programme is changing. It is moving away from the classic kind of budgetary support to health and education towards technical assistance and the sort of reforms that will help Ghana finance its own development programmes,” he explained.

However, he said, the transition beyond aid would take about 10 years, stressing that Britain wanted to see Ghana succeed.

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