The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has released the contact details of persons who are on standby to assist Ghanaian nationals especially students in Ukraine in the evacuation exercise.
This was contained in a press statement released on Saturday February 26.
The Ministry also cautioned the general public to be wary of unscrupulous persons posing to be designated officials for the evacuation exercise.
The Government of Ghana finally decided to evacuate Ghanaian students to neighboring countries – Moldova, Belarus, Slovakia and Hungary – due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
A statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on Friday February 25 said “The Ministry through its Mission in Berne, Switzerland and the Honourary Consulate in Ukraine are in touch with the Ghanaian students in Ukraine through their leaders.
“A list of students has been compiled to facilitate an evacuation exercise.”
The National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) had maintained that evacuating Ghanaian students from Ukraine is the single most effective response to the conflict.
In a petition to the government on Friday February 25, NUGS said “We therefore make the following recommendations which must all be geared ultimately towards evacuation, Parliament should direct and supervise our mission in Switzerland through the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs to take immediate steps to make food, water and sanitary materials available to students while preparation for evacuation is underway.
“The embassy must improve its communication with students and establish formal means of giving out information to reassure the students who are losing hope in our systems.”
Meanwhile, the first batch of Ghanaian students stranded in Ukraine has been safely evacuated to Romania, 3news.com can confirm.
The students, who were in Chernivtsi, were evacuated as part of arrangements made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration via Ghana’s Mission in Berne, Switzerland.
The Ministry on Friday night conceded that as a result of the difficulty in airlifting Ghanaian students due to a shutdown of Ukrainian airspace, arrangements were rather made the evacuation be by land through neighbouring Moldova, Belarus, Slovakia and Hungary.
So far, those in Romania will be taken care of by the Romanian government as per the arrangements made by the Foreign Ministry.
Another batch is on its way to Hungary while a bus will be available on Monday to take the remaining to Poland, whose border is said to be choked.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana