The Director in charge of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Awuah Ababio, has given timelines for the evacuation of Ghanaians stranded abroad.
Apart from the evacuation of Ghanaians in London on Wednesday, June 17, there is another one expected on the following week involving Ghanaians in New York, USA.
“On the 28th of this same month again, we are going to have some evacuation from Washington DC. After that we shall move to phases,” Mr Awuah Ababio said on 3FM’s morning show, Sunrise.
“We are going to be dealing with evacuation from Belgium, Canada, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Niger, Spain, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Switzerland.”
But Australia is excluded from the list.
“I think sitting here one is not able to tell if Australia is going to happen anytime soon but it could possibly be the case that you have to fly people from Australia to some of these places to go and join flights coming to Ghana,” he said.
Meanwhile, the returnees are required to bear the cost of evacuation themselves depending on the category one is placed.
According to Mr Awuah, there are various categories of the returnees.
“The numbers were a little different from what we were looking at. If you look at the numbers from London we are talking about 434 Ghanaians and you suddenly have all these people given free accommodation, it is a lot so why don’t you give those people who have the means to pay.
“Those who do not have the means to pay will also be taken through a strict criteria to determine whether they will have to be brought down in the first place or not.”
By Richard Bright Addo|3news.com|Ghana