{"id":2263,"date":"2020-03-31T19:35:09","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T19:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/nu\/?p=2263"},"modified":"2020-03-31T19:35:09","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T19:35:09","slug":"coronavirus-over-40-ghanaians-foreigners-caught-trying-to-enter-ghana-illegally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/coronavirus-over-40-ghanaians-foreigners-caught-trying-to-enter-ghana-illegally\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus: Over 40 Ghanaians, foreigners caught trying to enter Ghana illegally"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 24, 2020 | Citi News Room<\/em><\/p>\n

Following the closure of Ghana\u2019s borders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, the Ghana Immigration Service has quelled multiple attempts by Ghanaians and foreigners to enter the country illegally.<\/p>\n

All borders were closed on midnight of Sunday, March 22. Ghana\u2019s coronavirus case count has risen to 52 since then.<\/p>\n

Addressing the press on Tuesday, Laud Ofori Afrifa, the Deputy Comptroller-General of the Ghana Immigration Service, cited the Aflao area as having seen \u201cvarious attempts to enter the country illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among those intercepted, there were seven Nigerians; four men and three women \u201cwho were sent back across the border to Togo\u201d on March 22.<\/p>\n

Also, an American national who had crossed over from Togo was picked up by immigration personnel after he landed at the Lome airport on March 20.<\/p>\n

The American national has since been referred to health officials and is \u201cunder arrest and detention and being sent into mandatory quarantine [ because of the coronavirus ].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther action to take on him will be announced in consultation with the legal authorities,\u201d Mr. Afrifa added.<\/p>\n

Of concern to the state is that local communities were aiding people to enter the country illegally, Mr. Afrifa also stated.<\/p>\n

He revealed that 12 Okada riders were arrested \u201cfor attempting to smuggle things across the border\u201d at Aflao.<\/p>\n

At the Sogakope inland border, a Ghanaian doctor who flew in through Lome from the US \u201cand entered illegally\u201d was also intercepted.<\/p>\n

\u201cEthiopian Airlines continues to fly to Lome so we are watching that border post very closely because that is where we are seeing the tendency of persons mobbing through,\u201d Mr. Afrifa said.<\/p>\n

Two Ivorians who hired vehicles from Aflao border and were moving to Accra were also arrested.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers of vehicles have also arrested and they are all being sent to mandatory quarantine and thereafter, the issue of prosecution will be considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Elubo, 21 persons; five Ghanaians, nine Beninois, three Nigerians, a Malian and three Ivorians, were intercepted with the foreigners being sent back across the border.<\/p>\n

Up North, Mr Afrifa said there were attempts by Nigeriens and Burkinabes to get out of the country in buses but \u201cthey have been stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Deputy Comptroller-General ended his address by urging Ghanaians in border towns to cooperate with the border control measures amidst the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not in normal times so the manner they have been operating in conspiring to smuggle people out of the country should cease\u2026they should rather inform us of illegal entries rather than aiding them,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n

Aside from this update, Togolese nationals were arrested at the Tatale border attempting to cross with motorbikes at unapproved routes.<\/p>\n

Ghana currently has 14 approved entry routes into the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 24, 2020 | Citi News Room Following the closure of Ghana\u2019s borders to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country, the Ghana Immigration Service has quelled multiple attempts by Ghanaians and foreigners to enter the country illegally. All borders were closed on midnight of Sunday, March 22. Ghana\u2019s coronavirus case count<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-codvid19"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sendwestafrica.org\/ghana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}