Stranded Ghanaian football player finally going home

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The Clark airport’s "Tom Hanks" is finally flying to his home country at 6 p.m. today after being stranded here for almost six months.

Nineteen-year-old Ayi Nii Aryee, a football celebrity from Ghana in West Africa, is taking a United Emirates flight to Dubai, from where he will board another flight to Accra in Ghana.

But Aryee, whom personnel of the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA) has likened to Tom Hanks, who portrayed a character facing a similar fate in the movie Terminal, said he expects to be back in the Philippines for good in a week’s time.

This is to realize his wish to permanently stay in the country and make himself useful as a football instructor, he said.

Aryee, an orphan, said his friends from the Ateneo Football Association spent for his plane tickets and are prepared to help him return to the country.

The Ateneo group has been negotiating with the Bureau of Immigration to help Aryee realize his dream to come back.

Aryee, who had been confined at the airport’s fire and security department since last July, earlier wrote President Arroyo to seek help so he could stay permanently in the Philippines and even become a Filipino citizen.

Immigration Commissioner Alipio Fernandez clarified to The STAR that Aryee was not being deported since he was merely a victim of unusual circumstances.

"His is merely an airport-to-airport case and not deportation," he said.

Fernandez said Aryee’s request to stay in the Philippines could not be formalized unless he made his request from Ghana since he enjoys no status at all in the country at present.

The Ateneo Football Club is prepared to file a petition for Aryee’s return to the country. Fernandez said the club has expressed its willingness to sponsor Aryee in the country.

Club members paid him a visit at his quarters here during his 19th birthday last Nov. 18 and played football with him. They described his football talent as "amazing."

Aryee’s case initially stemmed from an invitation from a football club in Singapore for him to play soccer there. Aryee then decided to enroll in a computer course in Singapore and applied for a student permit.

While waiting for the approval of his permit, he decided to visit a relative in Cavite. On his way back to Singapore last July 13, he was barred entry because his student permit had been denied.

He was told to board the same Tiger Airways flight that he took from the DMIA where he had been stranded since then, as his passport did not have the necessary immigration stamp from the country where he last flew into. — With Ric Sapnu