A group of Ghanaian athletes with disabilities, the National Disability Sports Fraternity, protested at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, against what they say is an ongoing visa racketeering chain that exploits persons with disability.

The group’s main concern is the apparent exploitation of disability sports for illegal visa acquisitions.

Led by Frederick Asor, Athlete Commissioner on the National Paralympic Committee Board, the group called for government’s attention on the issue. 

“We have once presented a petition concerning this issue already, and we are here again about the same old story. We’ve seen that it’s still happening. So we are here once again to draw the ministry’s attention that we persons with disability are being used for Galamsey. 

“If I say galamsey, people are using us for visa racketeering here and there. Traveling that we are not involved. We just see our names, our events, being used to travel out of the country whilst we are not aware. And it is tarnishing the image of we persons with disability,” he said.

The group fingered the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) as part of the main schemers and called  for a thorough investigation into the matter.

This comes months after Joy Sports intercepted a letter from the National Security Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah detailing how nine members of a ‘paralympic team’ from Ghana were on the run in Oslo, Norway, following accusations of impersonation.