“We Feel Frustrated”…. Visa Problems Mute Liberia’s Summit Voice
No comments“We feel very frustrated, and think the delay for our delegation to attend the fourteenth session of the UN Climate Change Summit will gravely affect us.” That is the verdict of the head of the five-man Liberian delegation to the summit meeting of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (known as COP 14, the fourteenth Conference of the Parties) taking place in Poznan, Poland.
Mr. Ben Donnie, head of the Liberian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the rest of the delegation had to travel from Liberia to Abuja, Nigeria for two days, expecting that they would get visas from the Polish Embassy ahead of the opening session of the summit on 1 December.
But they had to spend nearly five further days in Nigeria before they were finally granted their visas.
Mr Donnie said the delay meant they could attend the summit only for one week instead of the two weeks they had planned.
Speaking to this writer shortly after learning that it would take up to four days for the Embassy to deliver the visas, Mr. Donnie said: “Surely, this will affect our representation. We want to be there ourselves for all the sessions. Although, as head of the delegation, I have been receiving e-mails about what is happening in Poznan from the summit secretariat, this is not enough. We should have been there from the beginning to make our input and meet with colleagues.“He added:”When the summit was held in other countries, for example in Indonesia and Canada, we did not have this kind of problem because the embassies were on time in providing visas. When there is a summit like Poznan, restrictions should not follow the normal path. But here in Abuja, the Polish Embassy is saying that whether or not it is a conference of the parties, there still have to be restrictions and the normal diplomatic protocols must be observed.”
Asked whether this meant the delegation would give up the opportunity to attend the summit, Mr Donnie said:”It is important for us to join the others to speak with one voice on donors making good their commitments during the previous summits. So we will attend, even though there are just a few days left, because it is important for us to be there”.
