30 euros forced registration in a rejected Ghana union before passport could be renewed

Ghanaians in Girona have been told to pay thirty euros registration fee to a defunct Ghana union in the city in other for them to be able to get their passports renewed in an oncoming Mobile Passport Renewal exercise which the Ghana Consulate in Madrid would be conducting in the city come September 30 and November 1.

The news which was announced on the union’s WhatsApp platform has come as ongoing intimidation from the defunct union unfortunately being supported by the consulate to those Ghanaians who saw the need to form a new association due to the unscrupulous behaviour of the old one.

Readers may recall an issue that occurred last year when Ghanaian nationals among them pregnant women and children who travelled over hundred kilometres to Martorell near Barcelona to take part of the Consulate’s Mobile Passport Renewal and Issuing exercise and were denied because they do not belong to a defunct union in Girona. Well, this seems like another opportunity to further belittle compatriots who in their right have rejected the behaviour of the minority who act with impunity over them to deny them their basic citizenship right once again.

While we appreciate the consulate’s effort and dedication to bring such exercises to the doors of its citizens, and understood the need of a collaboration team on the ground to ensure orderliness and decorum in the process, shouldn’t they also ensure that all Ghanaian nationals are treated equally without let or hindrance as stipulated in our passport?

What have we become as a nation and as a people? Why is everyone acting with impunity without considering the rights of others? Why do Ghanaians always find a way to extort money from their own people and do so without a care in the world? Most of you readers will be surprised to know that, until today, until this moment that I am writing this article, Ghanaians in Girona who travel on their own to Madrid to go through biometric procedures and all other protocols still have to collect their passport from an individual in our city who’s acting as a proxy and charges owners an amount he deems fit, while those people left their addresses at the consulate so their passports could be posted to them. How should it be so? Why can’t we respect our own? Why do the few who are privileged to have some education think that the less privileged are fools and therefore could be trampled on?

A week and a half ago, I received a call from the head of a care home here in Girona where we have one of sisters who, unfortunately, is paralyzed and has been living there for the past ten years asking me about a passport they processed for renewal so the lady could renew her long expired residence permit in order to be able to receive some kind of assistance from the government. As a co-signature of the documents, I receive an automatic prompt from the passport office at the consulate’s system that the documents have been received and that it is in process on the 3^rd of June. So, what do you make of the head of the care home calling me just a week and half ago to inquire about the passport saying the consulate had informed them that the passport is in Girona following a call there? How can one explain this situation?

An unauthorized proxy has received the passport and not being part of the process and therefore does not know the owner is keeping it in his apartment without any care in the world as has been the case for many of our compatriots here in Girona.

What have we done to deserve this? Is the consulate waiting for a confrontation to occur before changing its tactics?