Ghana airport officials who may demand to see your passport

If you are a regular traveller who uses the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, you’d be familiar with how many airport officials would ask to see your passport as you pass through check-in, security and on your way to the boarding gates.

Then on your arrival, as a Ghana passport holder resident in the country, you’d encounter the irritating experience of airport health officials demanding and sometimes insisting to see your passport and then proceed to ask to see your inoculation or yellow fever card also known as ‘yellow card’.

However, the Ghana Airports Company Limited has said airport health officials are not required to demand to see the yellow fever cards of Ghana passport holders.

I recently asked three questions on Facebook, of the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority the regulator of the country’s airports and the Ghana Airports Company Limited, the manager of the airports, and Ghana Airports responded.

The following are the questions:

1. Which designated employees at the airport can demand to see the passport of travellers?
2. What is the rational for airport health officials demanding to see the inoculation cards (yellow cards) of residents in Ghana who are returning home and have not been to a yellow fever infested area?
3. How do you get some of the officials working at the airport to stop demanding money from travellers?

The Ghana Airport Company Limited provided the following answers:

1. At the airport, several agencies are legally mandated to perform specific functions. Officials from these agencies require passengers to present their passports to fulfill their duties. The agencies include Ghana Immigration Service, Aviation Security, Customs, National Investigations Bureau, Narcotics Control Commission (NaCOC), and the Airlines.
2. Health officials are not required to examine yellow fever cards of Ghanaian passport holders upon arrival in Ghana. Nonetheless, Ghanaians holding passports from countries other than Ghana will need to present their passports for inspection by health officials at KIA.
3. We currently run announcements in the terminal about payment of money by passengers. Passengers are expected to demand a receipt for every payment made. If it is a valid transaction, the staff shouldn’t have a problem issuing the receipt. The passenger has every right to refuse and report to the customer service desk for prompt action.

Additionally, providing any form of evidence will also help to deal with culprits.

These responses should satisfy any concerned frequent traveller through the airport.

By Emmanuel K Dogbevi
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