Help Kuwait returnees settle down - Clinical Psychologist to government

A Clinical Psychologist at the University of Ghana School of Public Health, Dr. Emmanuel Asampong is urging the government to provide an avenue for the reintegration of the Ghanaian returnees from Kuwait.

The over 200 Ghanaians returned over the weekend after they were deported by the Kuwaiti government.

Dr. Asampong says the government must first provide an avenue for them to share their stories and for their families to provide them with the needed social support.

He said, “Normally when we have people who come to their own country under the circumstances that we are looking at, it’s always important that they are taken through debriefing. Debriefing in terms of what their experiences were and how they dealt with it to give them the opportunity to vent out so that by the time they are done, they would have had some kind of relief. Beyond that, these people belong to families. These families can be referred to as significant others in the lives of those people. They also would have to be given all the information with respect to the coming of their relatives. When that has been done, then we can let them provide that kind of social support for them.”

 

 

Background

Over 200 Ghanaians arrived in the country from Kuwait on Saturday, May 23, 2020, after the government agreed to a request by the Kuwaiti government to deport some Ghanaians living in that country illegally.

The deportees came in through a chartered flight with all costs taken care of by the Kuwaiti government.

Prior to their arrival, they were tested for COVID-19 in Kuwait and confirmed negative.

But the Minister of Aviation, Joseph Kofi Adda added that health officials in Ghana have also taken the samples of the deportees for independent testing.

“Where we have gotten so far, the test is generally negative, [but] our internal medical experts will conduct another round of test to be sure that they are truly negative,” he told Citi News.

They will then undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine or isolation, depending on the test results.