No option for ‘stranded’ Ghana teener but to go home, says BI chief

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The 19-year-old football player from Ghana, who has been stranded at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) here for 47 days now, has no choice but return to his home country in West Africa.

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez said they have studied the case of Ayi Nii Aryee and the request of the honorary consulate of Ghana in Singapore to allow him to stay in the Philippines while he awaits his student visa.

However, it has been decided that Aryee cannot stay in the country for being an "undocumented alien."

Aryee arrived in the Philippines last July 3 on a tourist visa but left for Singapore via Tiger Airways on July 12.

He, however, was denied entry in Singapore as his request for a student visa there was denied and was sent back to the Philippines. He has been staying at the DMIA ever since.

"He cannot use the Philippines as a staging area while waiting for the results of his petition for reconsideration of his student visa application," Fernandez said.

He said Aryee was considered a tourist during his first flight to the Philippines as Ghana nationals can visit the country for 21 days without a visa.

Fernandez said he has coordinated with immigration officials and Tiger Airways to help Aryee fly back to Ghana. 

Aryee, an orphan from Accra in Ghana, first went to Singapore last April upon the invitation of a sports club to play football there.

With some Singaporean $3,800 sent by his brother working in China, Aryee later enrolled in a computer course in the city state and applied for a student visa. On July 3, he flew to the Philippines via Tiger Airways to visit a cousin married to a Filipina in Bacoor, Cavite.

Returning to Singapore also on board Tiger Airways on July 12, he was denied entry and sent back to the Philippines. Aryee tried to take another flight to Macau, but was also denied entry.

"Aryee is supposed to be the responsibility of Tiger Airways, but it does not have any office at the Clark airport," Fernandez said, adding that the airline is even supposed to pay a fine for transporting an undocumented alien.

In a text message to The STAR yesterday, Aryee appealed for humanitarian consideration that he be allowed to stay with his cousin in Cavite.

"Please temper justice with mercy and allow me to stay," he said. "Please make it known to the public and also to the authorities that I have lost both parents and my younger sister (left in Ghana) is only 14 years old and she looks up to me for her needs."

He said he could no longer refund the tuition he had paid in Singapore and that his fare back to Ghana would cost about $1,450.

"I am not a criminal and I never had any intention to break any law," he said.