Interior Minister sued for unlawful deportation of Indian national

An Accra High court will today [Friday] hear a case brought against Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery and the Comptroller General of Immigration, Kwame Sakyi by an Indian national who is contesting his deportation from Ghana.

Mr Ashok Kumar Sivaram who had lived in the country for a number of years is accusing the two officials of unlawfully deporting him over unsubstantiated claims.

The Interior Minister and the Comptroller General of Immigration are said to have approved the deportation of Mr Sivaram on grounds that he obtained a fake marriage certificate to enable his stay in the country.

The defendant in the suit revealed that the “the Applicant was deported from Ghana on the said morning of 1st June 2017 without any notice to him or being offered the opportunity to be heard on the allegation of forgery leveled against him.”

“The Respondents carried out this operation without regard to the presence of the Applicant’s business interest in Ghana that employs one hundred and sixty (160) people out of which one hundred and thirty (130) are Ghanaians and thirty (30) are Expatriates. Again, no regard or consideration was given by the Respondents inspite of the pendency of the case in the High Court, Commercial Division and the Order for a valuation process to be undertaken by Ernst & Young to enable the Court proceed with the matter pending before it,” the suit explained.

The suit indicated that “the Applicant was arrested as if he was a common criminal on 1st June, 2017 and immediately deported from Ghana without regard to the Orders of the High Court made on 5th May, 2017 for the valuation of Jai Mai Communications Limited.