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National Democratic Congress (NDC) executive member Wonder Victor Kutor says Ghana acted correctly in receiving deportees from the United States but faults government for mishandling the procedure.
Appearing on Joy Prime’s Prime Insight on Saturday, Mr. Kutor stressed that there was no legal or humanitarian issue with taking back citizens deported from abroad.
“In terms of the substance, receiving the persons, there’s nothing wrong. If you look at immigration rules across the world, on humanitarian grounds, there’s absolutely nothing wrong. But I think the problem many are having is the procedure, which I kind of side with in a way,” he explained.
The Constitutional Angle
Mr. Kutor argued that while government was within its rights to accept the deportees, constitutional provisions may have been brushed aside.
According to him, the mere label of “memorandum of understanding” does not exempt an agreement from parliamentary approval if its content requires such oversight.
“If you say memorandum of understanding does not go to Parliament, that is just a heading. What does the content state? If the content appears to be an agreement, it ought to go to Parliament in accordance with Article 75 of the 1992 Constitution,” he said.
He insisted that substance must override labels in assessing the legality of government actions.
Parliament’s Role
Mr. Kutor maintained that Parliament could have been recalled from recess to regularise the deportation arrangement.
“Receiving the deportees, there’s no problem. But I thought the procedure ought to have been reconsidered. Parliament has been on recess, but they can always under urgency recall Parliament and discuss this issue. I don’t think the government should have a problem going to Parliament to rectify it,” he suggested.
His remarks come in the wake of government confirming that Ghana is set to receive 40 more deportees from the US, a development that continues to attract legal and political scrutiny.
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