The 245 Ghanaians who were deported from Kuwait have arrived at the Kotoka International Airport on a Kuwaiti aircraft.
The deportees arrived on a chartered flight today, Saturday, May 23, 2020.
Reports say, about 23 of them are Togolese who’ll be sent back to their homecountry, while the Ghanaian nationals have disembarked and undergoing arrival processes.
The deportation of these persons comes at a time when Ghana has all its entry points closed as part of measures to stop the importation of the novel coronavirus in the country.
The Minister of Information earlier on Friday told a Press conference that the Government of Kuwait will bear the travel cost for the deportees.
Mandatory Quarantine of Deportees
Mr. Nkrumah however explained that arrangements have been made to mandatorily quarantine these 245 persons upon arrival into the country and subsequently test them for COVID-19 with the Nation Security Secretariat working in collaboration with the Military, Immigration, and Police to ensure that the mandatory quarantine is adequately enforced.
“The deportees will be mandatorily quarantined and tested for COVID-19 immediately upon arrival into Ghana. Deportees who test positive will be supported with treatment. Deportees who test positive will remain in quarantine for a second test at the end of the 14 day quarantine period.
“In addition to the aforementioned COVID-19 measures, the deportees will generally be received and handled in line with immigration regulations for all deportees. That is they will be in the custody of the state for preliminary investigations on the circumstances of their illegal stay in Kuwait. Upon completion of the investigations, a case by case determination will be made on the status and further handling of each deportee in accordance with law” he said.
He assured Ghanaians that government is working assiduously to “ensure the health of the general population” and that this latest development will not in any way erode the gains chalked by government so far towards the fight against the virus in the country
