Kweku Adoboli Deserves Better Treatment

Perhaps, one of the heinous treatment against humanity that seems to have been swept under the carpet is the treatment meted out by the British Immigration authorities on the deportation of Kweku Adoboli, the Ghanaian former USB Swiss Bank Financial Analyst, who was convicted over a financial scandal.

We are of the opinion that the British immigration officials acted with high-handedness over a very simple issue of deportation which could have been carried out with human face, in line with the values espoused in the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights(UNDHR).

In the course of his deportation to his home country, Mr Adoboli said he was thrown like a piece of cargo and squeezed into the booth of a Kenya Airline plane in London back to Accra on Thursday.

Giving account of his nightmare, Mr Adoboli said the process was violent as four hefty men and a woman continued to heckle him on board the aircraft to Accra. Clearly, this treatment is undignified and against his fundamental human rights.

Indeed, Article 5 of the UNDHR states "No one shall be subjected to a torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment."

While we condemn the unethical conduct of Mr Adoboli, we take exception to the inhuman treatment meted out to him during his deportation to Ghana.

We urge the United Nations Human Rights Commission to take serious view on the handling of deportations by destination countries. We have had reports of grievous breaches of human rights during deportations.

It is regrettable that Mr Adoboli got involved in a financial scandal at Swiss UBS bank resulting in a loss of £1.8 billion, following which he was convicted in 2012. He was subsequently released after serving half of the sentence.

His quandary continued when he was taken into custody for the deportation process, but his application for a judicial review of his case was over ruled and violently thrown out of UK where had had lived for 26 years.

Mr Adoboli had held that it was against his human right, citing the recommendation the Stephen Shaw report on deportation, to have been deported from UK where he had lived for a very long time in his life. As if he knew that the worst was to happen to him.

His Member of Parliament, Hannah Bardel, upheld that Mr Adoboli had been incarcerated and it was unfair for him to be given another punishment of deportation from a country that had virtually become his home.

From all indications Mr Adoboli had shown remorse for his conduct and has learnt useful lessons from his actions and inactions that got him convicted over his involvements in rogue trade, and had since been working with Forward Institute to promote good governance in business and society.

We learn lessons from our mistakes to guide the future. It is, therefore, on the basis of this that we think Mr Adoboli deserves better treatment. Mr Adoboli worked under superiors who knew what was going on. What has happen to them?

While sympathising with Mr Adoboli in this difficult time in his life, we encourage him to continue to be useful to society by sharing his experiences to improve the conduct of business.

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