The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has repatriated 76 foreign ECOWAS nationals who entered Ghana through illegal routes.
At least 79 people have been arrested by officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in the Volta Region, allegedly for engaging in illegal business.
They include 72 Togolese and four Nigérien nationals as well as three Ghanaians.
The Volta Regional commander of the GIS, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration Peter Nantuo, said the foreigners have been living in Ghana without permits and have been engaged in illegal online trading activities.
“I have realised that the Volta Region for that matter, because it is near to our other ECOWAS countries, you people want to take the law into your own hands and do what you want,” DCI Nantuo told the illegal migrants before repatriating them, simultaneously briefing with the media.
“The Ghana Immigration Service [GIS] will never let the region and the country down, especially when drugs, cyberfraud, Q-Net [the controversial online ‘network marketing organisation’] are trying to take root in the region.
“Don’t deceive yourselves that maybe there’s a claim that the border is porous. It is not true. That does not mean we do not man or patrol our borders,” DCI Nantuo said.
“You people will go back right now to Togo. If you like, come back, and I will prosecute and jail you in Ghana.
“When you come, do something better. You cannot come and engage in something we all know is criminal and you think we should turn the other side? It will not work,” he said.
“We don’t hate ECOWAS nationals. We don’t say, ‘Don’t come to Ghana,’ but for now the border is closed. The ECOWAS Protocol does not say that just walk through the bush and come and sit and be doing something that is against the law.”
He advised foreign nationals who have an interest in coming to Ghana to “come in through the right way, with the right travel documents. Come and do lawful business and nobody will worry you. But this everyday crime, petty crime business, I can assure you that you will not know peace so far as you engage in it.”
The immigration chief also cautioned landlords to be mindful of individuals to whom they rent out their properties and asked them to do proper background checks on tenants.
