Veteran actor David Dontoh is sad; in fact angry because his plans to travel to the Netherlands have been scuttled by the Embassy which says it cannot guarantee that he will return to Ghana.
The renowned actor and television personality had applied for a visa to travel to the European country as part of a 16-member delegation, to organize a series of entertainment activities for the Black Stars who will face their Netherlands counterparts in a football friendly on Saturday, May 31 in Rotterdam, Holland.
All the members of that delegation, including musicians Shasha Marley and Pat Thomas, were denied visas, something David Dontoh, who says he had travelled to Holland several times, could not imagine. But it happened to him.
The denial letter from the Embassy said David Dontoh's "intention to leave the territory of the Member States before the expiry of the visa could not be ascertained."
The letter further stated that: "Since it has not been demonstrated or established to a reasonable degree of credibility that you have a regular and substantial income in your country of origin/habitual residence to support yourself, it is not felt to be sufficiently probable that you will return to you country of origin promptly, due in part to the local or general situation in your country of origin/habitual residence and/or weak social ties there."
The Embassy also stated that during David Dontoh's interview, he was unable to provide sufficient, verifiable information about the purpose and circumstances of his stay.
A very disappointed David Dontoh, who is also the host of TV show 'Agorofie,' told myjoyonline.com that he is very disappointed by the Embassy's decision because his delegation wanted "to follow them (Black Stars) to Holland, do our recording with the players and return."
"The FA president himself has been so interested in us following the team anytime they go to camp," he said.
According to him, the Ghana Football Association (GFA), the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave them introductory letters with PZ Cussons also submitting a letter stating that the company will bear the cost of the travel.
"We satisfied every condition that they are asking for... even for some of us they requested for our marriage certificate which we added and then they rejected the whole group; not a single person was given a visa," he regretted.
He stressed that he had travelled to that country several times and wondered "what is there to show that when I go, I won't come?"
His first trip to the Netherlands, he said, was in 1979, followed by others in 2001, 2003, and he has passed through that country on several other occasions.
The delegation was supposed to leave Ghana for Holland on May 25, 2014 and return to Ghana on June 1, 2014 and was going to do a show for the players on May 27.
David Dontoh disclosed that he has appealed the decision.
"We have actually filed an appeal. We went and made a report about it to the Chief of Protocol whose letter was on the documents that we presented and he is meeting the Ambassador of Holland," he said.
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