A bus carrying some 35 foreigners was intercepted by officials of the Ghana Immigration Service at Nandom in the Upper West Region on Tuesday.
They were reported to have sneaked into Ghana through unapproved routes and were heading to Accra, Kumasi and Sunyani when they were seized at the Nandom Hospital junction at about 18:40 hrs.
They comprised 11 Burkinabes, 19 Malians, 2 Sierra Leonneans and 3 Guineans, according to a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Upper West Region, Assistant Inspector Ibn Yussif Duranah Abdul-Mumin Seidu read.
The GIS said its investigations revealed that they were in the country “for business, farming, education and family visits”.
19 of them were males and 16 females with their ages between 17 and 55. They have since been screened by Port Health Authorities authorities before being sent out of Ghana into Burkina Faso at the Hamile border while the bus with registration number AS 3413 -20 has been impounded.
The development comes amid health and security threats along the West African subregion.Ghana recently issued an alert to all its regional and district health directorates following am outbreak of Marburg and Ebola in Guinea and Ivory Coast respectively.
Ghana’s land borders remained closed following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
“As part of our mandated duty to combat illegal migration to and from Ghana, and, stemmed with the Presidential directive on land borders closure, we urge the general public to collaborate with state security agencies to win the battle. The preparedness of the Ghana Immigration Service to combat illegal migration is non-negotiable”, the GIS statement said.
“To the few unscrupulous persons who facilitates the activities of irregular migration, we can assure you that your days are numbered where the law would catch up with you and mercy would have been too late. We’re unfazed because we have the backing of the state”, the statement warned.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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