I hope
Hon Member from Leadership is yielding
his position.
Mr Kobina Tahir Hammond (NPP
— Adansi Asokwa): Mr Speaker, whenever I am here, you also recognise that I am
around so — [Interruption] — I miss you a lot seriously. [Laughter] Mr Speaker, I
thank you very much for the opportunity to
speak for the first time since the House
resumed for this Meeting. I have not seen
you for a long while —
Mr Speaker, two important Statements
have been made by our Hon Colleagues,
and I believe they are both worth
contributing to. Let me take the matter of
refugees first, and I would go to the one on
national security. It is World Refugee Day,
and the prayer is that respective
governments should be careful in the way
they look after and treat refugees.
Mr Speaker, for many years when I
practised at the Bar of England and Wales, I did quite a lot of work with respect to refugees, particularly, those who had come
Statements
from “areas of persecution” or “so-called persecution areas” so the matter of refugee issues really is not new to me. The whole concept seems to be getting slightly confusing. The 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol are very clear on who a refugee is. The legal system developed the concept to include many variants. Here, it is not so much the case that because one fears persecution or prosecution, he would just jump onto the next available vehicle and then find himself in some advanced countries.
Mr Speaker, there has been a
conflation of persecution, so speaking, and prosecution. A lot of people are com- plaining about prosecution as being equivalent of persecution. What is even worse as we see it is economic migration, which is masquerading under the pseudonym of persecution and for that matter, the need of international protection. Three days or so ago, I read something on the internet, I think Ghanaweb or something, where a young man in Germany, who I think is a Ghanaian said, and I quote: “I renounced citizenship of Ghana to be German”.
Mr Speaker, he seems to be suggesting
that we can all go to Germany to apply for refugee status because there is hardship in this country. Indeed, it was so bad. The statement was to the effect that even if one's area is affected by rains, he could go and apply for refugee status in Germany. It was on the internet and inviting Ghanaians so to do. That is not the basis for which one applies for persecution.
I can understand the need for everybody to seek economic welfare and wellbeing because we all would want to be comfortable, but if there are genuine reasons why we go to the advanced countries, we must find the appropriate and legitimate means of going to the place. I do not think we should just go and tell all kinds of lies and there has been so many of them.
Mr Speaker, I recall those days when Ghanaians would come to my office, and I would ask them why they applied for refugee status in the United Kingdom and they talk to me like I am not a Ghanaian. They tell me the conditions in Ghana and would want to apply for whatever —
Mr Speaker, it gets more complicated. Look at what is happening with the people who are now crossing from France to the United Kingdom between Calais and across the channel. Can we think about it? The British Government is bereft of ideas on what to do. Recently, it was rumoured, and it was eventually denied that they were seeking to make Ghana a safe haven and to repatriate those people to Ghana. That was the original story that we heard, and was eventually denied, but in the end, the lot centered on Rwanda so the British Government has now decided that whoever takes the arduous journey of crossing the channel and reaching the United Kingdom and through that strait would be returned to Rwanda to apply for refugee status in that country.
Statements
It was so dead serious that I believe
about three or four days ago, a flight was
actually taken, and it was about to take-off
and for the last minute — indeed, the lawyers have challenged it in the High
Court and they have failed; they have made
unsuccessful attempts at the Court of
Appeal and have failed; the Supreme Court
of England had given the go ahead for the
flight to take them to Rwanda. At the
eleventh hour, the European Court of
Human Rights granted an injunction
grounding the flight and it did not take-off.
Mr Speaker, these are the things and as
much as we sympathise with people who
would want economic welfare, the distinc-
tion between economic migration and the
real political refugee — people in need of protection must be clearly dichotomised.
Other than that, international refugee
protection would lose its essence. Every-
body is scrambling under the pseudonym
of “protection”. There are people who do not need protection; they should stay in
their respective countries.
Mr Speaker, look at Ghana for
example, if everybody else were to come to
Ghana because it is peaceful and whatever,
could we contain them? There is also
another aspect of it. When Ukraine fell
because of all the crises — it has not completely fallen, but with the crisis going
on there, we assumed that our students
would come back home, yet what we heard
was that some of them said since they were
already in Europe, they would do all sorts
of things and apply for other statuses.
Home is home so people should be careful.
Mr Speaker, we do not have time to
debate the whole issue of refugee
protection; it would take us hours. The
other part of the Statement is about the
security situation in our sub-region,
particularly, lately in Ghana. It is a matter
of grave concern. I always suggest that we
should pipe it down. When it comes to
matters of this nature, I prefer that it is kept
on the quiet. There have been many
discussions and variations with various
permutations. I am concerned that that is
rather giving oxygen to whoever is
planning to harm us. Is it the case that we
are actually advising them on what to do or
not?
Mr Speaker, National Security, I
presume, is on top of what is going on. If
we listen to the debate on radio, most of the
pseudo-experts — we hear their names and they say they are experts in whatever, but
they are not doing the country any good.
Mr Speaker, we should calm down. Yes, it
is the — [Interruption] — Sorry. You keep saying something, but I cannot hear you — [Interruption] — The conclusion? Na wabrɛ a, ko fie ɛ — to wit: why not go home if you are tired? [Laughter]
Mr Speaker, let us pretend you did not
hear that one. He wants me to conclude; I
think he is tired. He is one of the young
ones I have been talking to. He is not
looking at me, but he is one of them.
Statements
These Hon Members are part of the
few that I need to chat with about how they
go about things, so we would talk. I would
not mention their names, but they have
seen me, so they know those I have referred
to.
Mr Speaker, it is also important that
this whole business about “coup d'état” is kept to their respective selves. Today, we
are talking about security and terrorists in
the other areas and regions, but the worst
form of it is that the coup d'état that we talk about every day, I mean, if we — what is the worst form of subverting the national
security of the country and what people
have been preaching and talking about?
The last one has to do with people who
wanted to go on demonstration and sought
for permission to go with arms. I read
yesterday that one of our young Hon
Colleagues, who I guesses sympathises
with Oliver Mawuse Barker-Vormawor's group, — but he should not talk about the foolishness of coup d'état and such issues. Well, he should not sympathise with Mr
Barker-Vormawor for there is nothing
good about what he is doing. He is creating
disunity and chaos, which does not help the
system. There was another statement
which I read from GhanaWeb that the coup
d'état has started already. How does that manifest itself?
Mr Speaker, we should be careful,
because this is the only country we have,
and we should be mindful of the way we go
about discussing these matters. I keep
saying that those who are old enough and
saw the June 4th or even the 31st December
Revolutions would not think about a coup
d'état. This is the best system we ever can have: four years of governance. If the
government is not good, the people are
there, and would do what they have to do.
They would go to the polls and change the
government, but we should not wish the
country worse by imposing this sort of
atrocities on it.
Mr Speaker, looking at my Hon
Colleagues, they are tired, so I would spare
them. They were enjoying it, were they
not?
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
