About 25 Ghanaians are being
deported from the United Kingdom
(UK) to Ghana on Wednesday. The 25
people are among 72 West Africans
being deported from the UK for
various offences.
The deportees are coming in a char
tered flight which will be touching
down at the Kotoka International
Airport today. This is the first
deportation from the UK this year.
Last year, the UK deported 219
Ghanaians to the country. The Ghana
Immigration Service (GIS) confirmed
the news when contacted by The
Finder, adding that British authorities
communicated it to the GIS.
According to The Finder’s sources,
the deportees, both males and
females, have varied professional
backgrounds and fall under the
various age groups.
The source said reasons for depor
tation are overstay of visa and
involvement in criminal activities.
Some of the deportees have worked
in the UK for over 10 years. According
to the source, the deportees are
coming with armed escorts who
would release them to their families.
The GIS told The Finder that on ar
rival, the airline would inform immi
gration that deportees are on board.
Immigration officers at the fraud
office will then be assigned to the
flight to receive the escorts and
deportees. The GIS explained that the
escorts would then present
documents on the deportees covering
their names, offences committed and
other relevant information to the GIS
fraud office. The GIS fraud office will
in turn take statements from the
deportees, which would be added to
the documents presented to them by
the escorts, before they will allow the
deportees to go home.
The Telegraph of UK on Tuesday,
February 25, 2014 reported that more
than 3,000 foreign criminals are fight
ing deportation. The paper said
almost 2,300 of the foreign offenders
awaiting deportation were told to
leave more than a year ago, with more
than 600 others still in the UK five
years after being told they must go
home. Overall, 3,133 foreign offenders
were in the UK as of September last
year, including 64 who could not be
deported because the authorities did
not even know their identity or nation
ality.
The figures were released after it
emerged earlier this month that
Britain was being forced to pay tens
of millions of pounds to keep nearly
1,500 foreign criminals behind bars
beyond the term of their sentence as
they fight deportation. The cost could
reach the equivalent of £55 million a
year as more than 500 foreign
prisoners are held in jails after their
sentences have ended while almost
1,000 are being kept in immigration
removal centres, figures showed.
Data from the Ghana Immigration
Service (GIS) revealed that as many as
2,940 Ghanaians were deported to
Ghana last year while the number of
Ghanaians who were refused entry
into the various countries they were
travelling to at airports amounted to
676. The United Kingdom tops the list
of European countries while Libya de
ported the highest number of Ghana
ians. The deportees came from
several countries such as Germany,
Holland, Canada, United States of
America (USA), Spain and Saudi
Arabia.
According to the data, a total of 237
Ghanaians were voluntarily repa
triated from various countries to
Ghana last year. The GIS information
also indicates that 179 people who
hid aboard ships (stowaways) in
order to obtain free passage into
other countries were also arrested
and deported to Ghana.
Source : The Finder
Hmm Welcome home, there is no place like home.
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