A Wednesday night operation by personnel of the Ghana Immigration Service has led to the arrest of five Burkina Faso nationals including two kids.
This brings to over 200 the number of Burkinabe nationals arrested and repatriated on the Ghana-Burkina Faso border in the Upper West Region since the closure of Ghana’s borders.
Public Affairs Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service in the Upper West Region, ICO Ibn Yussif Duranah indicated that the suspects have been screened and repatriated.
“They were coming from Burkina Faso to Ghana and their intent was to enter Ghana illegally to proceed to Sunyani for farming activities. It was done through an unapproved route around the Hamile border. The five persons arrested yesternight comprised of four males and a female with the age range of three to 29 years”, the Immigration Spokesperson said.
“We have two kids among the males. Having arrested them yesternight, we could not have invoked the protocol of repatriation so we had to keep them at the Hamile Sector Command. Then this morning, the port health was called upon to screen them on their health status before they were repatriated. So they’ve since been handed over to the Burkina Faso authorities,” he indicated.
Ghana has shut all borders in desperate attempts to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus.
The Ghana Immigration Service wants residents in border towns to help in the fight against the virus.
“The use of unapproved routes into or out of Ghana remained unlawful, illegal and must be upheld as such. Aside that, as officers mandated to man our borders, we’re enforcing the President’s directive on the closure of our borders. This directive must be adhered to without any hesitation.
“It must be pointed out that no matter how smart the irregular migrants are, the men in uniform are far smarter and better positioned to subdue the illegality. We urge the general public to collaborate with Ghana Immigration Service and the other security agencies to end irregular migration into and out of Ghana,” the Upper West Regional Immigration Spokesperson said.
Ghana’s COVID-19 case counts have risen to 7,303, according to health officials. It means an additional 186 new cases have been reported.
The recoveries have also increased to 2,412 per the late Wednesday evening update from the Ghana Health Service.
The total number of deaths still stands at 34. A total of 205,890 tests have been administered.
By Jonathan Ofori, Daily Mail GH
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