Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament has urged the Akufo-Addo-led government to retaliate against the decision by Emirates Airlines to ban flights from Ghana and other African countries.
The United Arab Emirates airline on Tuesday said passengers on direct and transit flights from Ghana, Angola, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Zambia and Zimbabwe will not be permitted to travel to Dubai from 28 December 2021.
It further indicated that outbound passenger operations from Dubai to these destinations remain unaffected.
However, in a Facebook post, the North Tongu MP urged African leaders to condemn the decision and serve an ultimatum to the airline to backtrack its directive.
According to Ablakwa, the directive by Emirates is the most discriminatory, offensive, senseless and retrogressive step given.
Also, he indicated that “the other nauseating irony is that daily active cases in the UAE have now crossed 1,800, far higher than Ghana’s 1,264 new cases, and yet UAE citizens can travel to Ghana whereas Ghanaians cannot travel to the UAE.”
“I should hope President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana would also in protest reconsider his plans to lead a Ghanaian delegation to the Dubai Expo on March 8, 2022,” he stated.
Below is the full Facebook post:
Emirates’ travel ban imposed on selected African countries including Ghana, effective today 28th December 2021 is by a mile the most discriminatory, offensive, senseless and retrogressive step.
Ghana, Angola, Guinea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia do not have an active case count and hospitalization anywhere near that of France, UK, Italy, USA and India whose citizens are all allowed, rightly so if I may add, to still travel to and transit through Dubai.
The other nauseating irony is that daily active cases in the UAE have now crossed 1,800, far higher than Ghana’s 1,264 new cases, and yet UAE citizens can travel to Ghana whereas Ghanaians cannot travel to the UAE.
I urge African Presidents and the African Union to immediately denounce this shameless discriminatory policy and to proceed by giving UAE authorities an ultimatum to reverse this backward ban, failing which I strongly expect African countries to reciprocate in good measure, and in addition withdraw en masse from the ongoing Dubai Expo which closes on March 31, 2022.
I should hope President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana would also in protest reconsider his plans to lead a Ghanaian delegation to the Dubai Expo on March 8, 2022.
African nations cannot continue to be soft targets in these dark schemes that perpetuate high-level international racism.
All countries should listen to the WHO which has long warned that travel bans do not work and that they are indeed counterproductive. Global challenges demand global solutions, not blinded discriminatory knee jerk reactions.
Nicholas Brown
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