An International Diplomatic Consultant, Farouk Al Wahab, has stated that Ghanaian embassies do not treat Ghanaians living in the diaspora well.
According to him, Ghanaians who need to access the services of the embassies are usually maltreated by the very people who should seek their welfare.
Mr. Farouk, who is a globally certified diplomatic consultant cum expert in international relations, feels that Ghanaian embassies and consulates should be doing more for their citizens especially in trying times.
Ghanaian embassies are only efficient at processing documents for Ghanaians to be deported back to the country, he claimed.
He also lambasted the embassies for charging citizens returning home 150 dollars as visa fees.
Al Wahab Farouk added that at the time Ghana was charging 150 dollars for COVID-19 test, no country in the world was charging even 50 dollars, which he described as a punishment to Ghanaians abroad.
This follows the revelation that there is no consulate in the Kurdistan province of Iraq where four Ghanaian nationals are facing a death penalty after they allegedly trafficked food items suspected to be laced with narcotic drugs into the region.
He stressed that the negative attitude of the ambassadors towards their citizens is appalling and thus would not encourage the citizens to approach them as and when they need their services.
Responding to a question about Ghanaians not visiting embassies or consulates, the diplomatic consultant stated that “in the United Kingdom, in London where Ghanaians are well educated or well scholarized, how many of them are able to access the embassy? They will not go because of how you maltreat them. Ghanaian embassies don’t treat Ghanaians well”.
Citing an example in Britain, he said that the British police at the Buckingham Palace had to inform an ambassador, who was there to present his letters of accreditation to behave well because he was using his phone while neglecting his reason for being there.
In a separate incident, an ambassador once embarrassed himself when he told Ghanaians in Berlin who needed to renew their passports that they are yet to learn how to resolve renewing their ‘outdated’ passports for them.
Mr. Al Farouk stated that he wouldn’t mention the year or the name, for the preservation and conservation of someone’s name, but the said ambassador had experts – foreign affairs secretary and visa counsellor – who could have resolved the challenge easily but because he was a political diplomat, who was unfit for office, he passed that “nonsense of the highest degree” comment.
While commending Foreign Affairs Minister, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, for removing half of the political diplomats and replacing them with expert career diplomats who understand the rudiments of foreign affairs and diplomacy, he called for reorientation of diplomats assigned to foreign missions.
He claimed that the ministry usually refuses to promote the qualified persons.
They post the career diplomats to ‘non juicy’ states such as Benin, Chad and Niger as punishment while political diplomats are sent to ‘juicy’ states where they enjoy diplomatic meals and send their relatives.
