On Saturday, March 21, 2020, President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the closure of the country’s borders from Sunday, March 22, for a period of two weeks to limit the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the country. As such, the country was closed to all but returning Ghanaians and foreign nationals with Ghanaian residence permits, and were all placed on a 14-day mandatory quarantine.
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Fortunately and unfortunately for Ghanaians, whilst the closed borders reduced our imported cases of the virus into the country, it also trapped some Ghanaians abroad with most in areas where the COVID-19 pandemic is widespread.
Some of these citizens regardless of not being able to return to the country temporarily, have received support from Ghanaian embassies in countries they were trapped in. But same cannot be said for all Ghanaians.
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Traders who travelled to Norway for business purposes have cried out about the unresponsiveness of the Ghanaian Embassy in Norway, Oslo to their constant cries.
In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Happy Morning Show, with Samuel Eshun, spokesperson for the stranded traders in Norway, Hakeem Abdulai expressed their frustrations.
“When we were stranded and didn’t know what to do we had to care for ourselves, and that was what we did. The wholesaler from whom we picked our goods from contacted the embassy on our behalf. He kept calling them but to no avail”, he said.
According to him, he {Hakeem} personally called the Ghanaian Embassy in Norway and received no response.“The call goes through alright but no one picks up”, he said painfully.
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He noted that they (traders) were running on fumes as they had spent all the money they had on them. “We only came with money to trade because we didn’t plan to stay here this long”, he explained.
The traders appealed to the government to either liaise with the Embassy in Norway to help them out or increase efforts to bring them back home. “We can be quarantined upon our return to the country for our safety and that of all Ghanaians”, he noted.
Ghana closed its borders on Sunday 22nd March 2020 for a period of 2 weeks but the border closure has already been extended twice and will last till 3rd May 2020.