Ghanaian student John Minimade, while unable to attend his father’s funeral in Ghana today, will still make it home to his family, after a flight was secured to take him from Barbados today, through Panama and Turkey.
Last Thursday Minimade was barred from boarding a Thomas Cooke flight at the Grantley Adams International Airport to Manchester and onto London.
He was heading home to Ghana and was forced to sleep in the airport for two nights, with no money and no way to contact his family. However, two Good Samaritans checked him into a guest house.
When Minimade tried to make contact with the British High Commission on Tuesday, he was told that they only worked on Thursdays.
“I originally came to the Caribbean through Panama and Brazil. We chose the route through England because it was US$2 000 cheaper, but I was told I would not need a transit visa because I was not changing airports,” he said.
When contacted, head of political and communications team at the commission, Edward Munn, indicated that while they operated every day, they did not issue visas from their office. The hub for the Caribbean is in New York, and all collections of visa applicants were outsourced, with this process happening once a week at the Hilton Barbados on Thursdays.
Additionally, a check on the UK Government’s website indicated that everyone passing through their hub required a transit visa. However, once the passenger arrived and departed by air or had already confirmed their onward flight leaving on the day of arrival into the country or before midnight on the day after arrival that could be waived. (RA)
