The Member of Parliament (MP) for Builsa South, Dr Clement Apaak, has expressed grave concern over the potential deportation of Ghanaian students studying at the University of Birmingham in the UK, attributing the situation to the government’s failure to remit their tuition fees on time.
This comes after Ghanaian students at the University of Birmingham in the UK face possible deportation due to delayed tuition fee payments, following the cancellation of their student visas because of their inability to pay their fees as the government has failed to remit the necessary funds.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Dr Apaak described the development as a national embarrassment, criticising the government for abandoning students who had been sent abroad on government scholarships to enhance their knowledge and skills.
“As a nation, we should be embarrassed that we send our young men and women on Government of Ghana scholarships with the intention that they would go, gain knowledge, and then come back and serve their nation. But we send them to foreign lands and then we fail to do the needful by paying their stipends and their fees. I fail to understand why the government would sit by and watch and allow Ghanaian students studying abroad to be withdrawn. Now we hear that a lot of them are in the process of being deported, detained, or prosecuted.
“It is an indictment on the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government, and it is a shame to the Republic of Ghana,” he stated.
The MP also revealed that this issue had been raised numerous times on the floor of Parliament, but despite filing several questions, the government had failed to provide any responses.
“I have raised this issue on a number of occasions on the floor of Parliament. My colleague Dafeamekpor has done the same. We have filed a number of questions and to date, those questions have not been responded to. I remember on one occasion; I got the Speaker’s eye, and I made a very passionate appeal on behalf of Ghanaian students abroad because this issue is not confined to only our students in the UK. You will recall that even in Morocco, some of us in Burkina Faso also reported the same challenges.”
“So, although I got the Speaker’s eye, it was my expectation that the issue would have been escalated to the level where we would require the summoning of the entities in charge to come to the floor and respond to questions, but unfortunately, that did not happen. So, we will continue to push, at least using the power of the media, to get the government to do the needful. The government has a role to play; these students are abroad on the Government of Ghana scholarship. Let’s do what is right,” he stated.
