Ex-Guantanamo Bay Detainees: Gov’t needs ‘consent’ of Gitmo 2 to send them away, says Minister

The Foreign Affairs minister has explained that the two ex-convicts must give their consent before they can be moved out of Ghana.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has revealed that government will need the consent of the two former Guantanamo Bay detainees being hosted by Ghana before they can be moved to another country.

According to her, the two Yemeni nationals have a say in whatever decision government takes, insisting they must give their consent before they can be sent to another country.

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Addressing the media on Wednesday after earlier appearing before Parliament, Mrs. Botchway said the government’s hands “are tied” because the two were granted refugee status by the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) government.

 

She stressed that plans to transfer the two ex-convicts out of the country were going well “until we found out that they must consent or agree to it. Whatever option we present to them [the two former detainees], they must consent to it. That is the bottom line, because of their [refugee] status”.

The two ex-detainees, Mahmud Umar Muhammad Bin Atef and Khalid Muhammad Salih Al-Dhuby, were transferred to Ghana for a two-year period following efforts to close down the Guantanamo Bay Prison.

However, the agreement that saw Ghana accept to host them effectively came to an end on January 6, 2018 – which marks two years of their stay in Ghana.

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Pressure has been mounting on government to take a decision on the immediate future of the two, after strongly criticizing the former administration for accepting them into the country.

But the Foreign Affairs minister disclosed in an earlier appearance before Parliament that government does not hold the power to send the two ex-convicts back to their country due to their refugee status.

She explained that “the implication is that, in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees of 1951, and the 1967 protocol on the Status of refugees as well as the provisions of the Refugee Law (1992) PNDC Law 305 (d) of Ghana, the two have attained the status of refugees in our country”.

Mrs. Botchway added that the essential component of the refugee status in Ghana “is protection against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution.”

The Foreign Affairs minister has explained that the two ex-convicts must give their consent before they can be moved out of Ghana. Read Full Story