Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Nana Asafo Adjei Ayeh, has urged the government to take stronger diplomatic action over reports that Black Stars midfielder Thomas Partey has been denied entry to Canada ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
In a Facebook post on Saturday (13 June), the Bosome Freho lawmaker argued that Canada would be acting inconsistently with its own immigration standards if entry was refused on the basis of allegations that have not resulted in a criminal conviction.
“Thomas Partey has been neither convicted nor found guilty of any crime by a court,” Ayeh wrote. “Denying him entry on the basis of unproven charges is not the exercise of sovereign discretion — it is a misapplication of Canada’s own laws.”
Canada, one of the host nations for the 2026 World Cup alongside the United States and Mexico, has the sovereign right to determine who enters its territory, Ayeh acknowledged. However, he argued that any decision affecting a player representing Ghana on national duty carries broader diplomatic implications.
“Partey is not travelling to Canada for personal reasons — he is on national duty, representing Ghana at the FIFA World Cup,” he said. “This makes Canada’s decision not just legally questionable but morally indefensible.”
The legislator also questioned whether Ghana’s diplomatic authorities had acted swiftly enough in addressing the issue.
He said a reported note of protest issued by Ghana’s Foreign Ministry shortly before the tournament suggested officials had reacted to developments rather than anticipated them.
Ayeh said measures outlined by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, including diplomatic engagement with Canadian authorities, a formal protest and the pursuit of legal and administrative remedies, represented the minimum expected response from the government.
“There is nothing extraordinary about these measures; they are the baseline expectation of the office,” he said.
The MP argued that Ghana possesses strong legal and moral grounds to challenge any refusal of entry, citing the principle of presumption of innocence and what he described as an inconsistency in the application of Canada’s immigration rules.
“If the Minister cannot convert these advantages into a visa for Partey, it will not merely be a diplomatic embarrassment; it will be a damning indictment of the calibre and clout of Ghana’s foreign policy establishment,” he wrote.
“The nation is watching, and history will record whether our diplomats rose to the moment or simply issued press releases.”
Source: asaaseradio.com
