The Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to boycott the next Dubai Expo in protest of the decision of Emirates airline to suspend indefinitely the entry of travellers from 10 African countries including Ghana.

The North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP) also wants African leaders and the African Union to denounce the decision and give the United Arab Emirates an ultimatum to reverse the suspension or face reciprocal action.

Mr Ablakwa in a Facebook post said the decision of Emirates which came into effect on December 28, 2021, is the most discriminatory, offensive, senseless and retrogressive step given that

He posted: “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”.

Suspension

The airline on December 28, 2021, 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 December 28, 2021.

It added that outbound passenger operations from Dubai to these destinations remain unaffected.

Read his entire post below;

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.