Ghana’s government has urged Canada to review its decision to deny Thomas Partey entry to the country after he was refused the right to enter Canadian soil Friday.
Ghana will face Panama in their World Cup opener Wednesday.
Partey, who remains at the team’s base camp in Boston, is set to stand trial after being charged with seven counts of rape and one count of sexual assault by London’s Metropolitan Police. On those grounds, Canada denied him entry to the territory ahead of Ghana’s tournament opener, but it’s a decision the Ghanaian government is not planning to accept. Partey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A statement Saturday from the Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs read: “The Government of the Republic of Ghana expresses strong reservations following the high-handed and extremely unfair decision by Canada.”
It added: “While respecting Canada’s sovereign right to enforce its immigration laws, Ghana considers that reliance on unproven charges in the absence of a judicial determination raises fundamental questions of fairness and proportionality.
“Accordingly, Ghana is pursuing active diplomatic engagements with the relevant Canadian authorities on this matter.”
The statement also said: “Government further notes Mr. Partey’s selection for the upcoming FIFA World Cup and the significant national and global sporting considerations at stake, and therefore urges Canada to rescind its decision in the interest of fairness and cardinal principles of common law.”
Sports Minister, Kofi Adams, told local station Channel One TV on Friday: “If any Ghanaian is touched anywhere, we will not keep quiet over it. Through the appropriate channels, we have communicated to the rightful authorities and are requesting for them to use all processes to review and give opportunity for a review of such a decision that we think frowns on international laws and conventions, which both Ghana and Canada are party to.
“We think it’s appropriate to get the appropriate authorities to review this decision,” he added. “We’ve taken it to that level, and we hope and pray that they do what they must do.”
A media spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, speaking on behalf of the office’s minister, Lena Diab, issued a statement to ESPN, explaining that the visa denial was justified because the country is consistent in “assessing [every person seeking to come to Canada] individually, based on facts available and the law that applies.”
It’s a decision that has been defended by FIFA, which has reaffirmed Canada’s right to determine who receives a visa and who is admitted into its country.
However, the Ghanaian government said it believes that Villarreal midfielder Partey, 33, and his teammates went through the appropriate steps to apply for a visa, and that Canadian authorities are setting an unacceptable precedent in denying Partey’s entry.
“Thomas was one of the players who was asked to go to the [London] embassy for his biometrics, and then yesterday morning we got the decision that he has been denied entry to Canada on very flimsy grounds,” Adams said. “I say flimsy because the person has already been charged, he has not been found guilty.
“Even in the country where they claim he committed the act, for which reason he is in court, which he has denied, he is still living there, as a free citizen, walking about freely and doing anything every free citizen should do.
“He’s plying his trade, so one is therefore surprised that Canada — which is so far away — will now apply rules to the extent where somebody has merely been charged.”
In the United Kingdom, a crime is only accepted to be tried in court when the police and the Crown Prosecution Service have determined that the legal case for prosecution has been met.
“This is absolutely wrong,” Adams said. “I don’t understand why today Canada is interpreting their rules to suggest that a charge means guilty.”
After Ghana’s opener against Panama, they will return to the United States for their second group stage game against England in Boston before concluding their Group L campaign against Croatia in Philadelphia on June 27.
Should they finish as runners-up in the group, they would then have to return to Canada to face the second-place team from Group K in Toronto on July 2.–ESPN
