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Foreign missions can’t be forced to respect Ghanaians – Gov’t

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The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, has said his outfit cannot coerce foreign missions in Ghana to treat Ghanaians who engage their services with the necessary respect they deserve as citizens of the country.

The Finder newspaper reported on Tuesday about the inhumane manner in which some conditions Ghanaians go through in their bid to acquire visa from these foreign missions.

According to the newspaper, visa applicants are sometimes made to stand for long hours in fair or wet weather waiting to be attended to by officials of these embassies. 

Speaking on Citi fm, the Foreign Affairs minister said the issue which is not new to his ministry has been handled a couple of times, adding that the practice has been consistent with diplomatic practices.

“We cannot order or compel, all we can do is to engage in negotiations with them. And they have been fruitful. ”

Others have questioned whether the Ghanaian Parliament was not adequately empowered to pass laws that could deal with such issues, however, the foreign affairs minister explained that diplomatic matters were handled delicately. 

Alhaji Mumuni explained that some of the foreign missions enjoy some immunity underscored by certain treaty obligations making it very difficult to impose some minimum condition on them, adding that the only way to get things to change is through continuous dialogue. 

He said that the surest way of dealing with the problem was “to approach these issues, as the complaints came and negotiate with the foreign embassies to achieve positive results”

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