The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) yesterday swept some streets of Accra of ‘professional beggars’ of foreign nationalities in a massive exercise that sought to end the spectacle and break possible criminal networks.
Operating on intelligence, officials rounded up at least 2,241 people, 1,332 of them classified as children, who have made begging for alms their main source of livelihood in the capital.
The exercise was a sudden swoop that surprised even the public as motorists and bystanders held their breath, watching the smooth collection of those beggars from their regular spots of sleeping, begging or recreation.
Those arrested during yesterday’s exercise included 909 adults, of whom 384 were males.
From areas around the Kaneshie Market to Sabon Zongo, near Laterbiokoshie, Nima, Abossey Okai and Obetsebi Lamptey Roundabout, Immigration officers executed what looked to many like a rehearsed strategy to remove the supposed human public nuisance.
All those picked up during the exercise were moved into state buses and later transported to safety for screening and other relevant protocol before their intended repatriation.
“The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) undertook an intelligence-led operation in the early hours of Friday, May 16, 2025, to rid the streets of Accra of foreign nationals involved in street begging,” a statement later issued by the GIS said.
“The operation seeks to repatriate undocumented foreign nationals humanely, and disrupt criminal networks that facilitate their operations in places such as Sabon Zongo, Nima, Abossey Okai and Obetsebi Roundabout, among others,” the statement signed by the Head of Public Affairs of the GIS, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration Michael Amoako-Atta, added.
“The suspects are currently being taken through the necessary processes, including security and medical screening at the national headquarters in Accra.
The GIS assured all stakeholders and the public that the detainees would be handled with the highest professionalism and respect for their human rights.
Context
The sight of beggars of foreign nationalities is common along the major streets of Accra.
Indeed, it appears to have become a lucrative enterprise for some investors who are believed to recruit professional beggars from neighbouring countries for the business.
While local authorities have repatriated many beggars on the streets of Accra in the past, a lot more have found their way back into the country to practise what now looks like a lucrative business.
It is claimed that the beggars account for their “sales” to their employers at the close of each day.
While these beggars are hardly known to possess landed property in the country, their reproduction system is, however, legendary.
The women among them continue to bear children, who soon accompany the parents, particularly the mothers, to the roadside to beg.
In some cases, the adults take a back seat while the children virtually harass motorists and pedestrians for money across a 24-hour cycle.
Earlier action
In June 2022, the government collaborated with the Embassy of Niger in Accra to repatriate over 1,600 beggars to Niamey in Niger, with plans to send back even more illegal migrants.
“They are a street nuisance and they have to be returned home immediately,” a source told the Daily Graphic in an interview.
At the time, the newspaper learnt that through a partnership with the government of Ghana, about 1,000 beggars, including children, had been mobilised for repatriation in accordance with migration regulations of Ghana.
In December 2021, the Caretaker Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, led officials of the ministry to collect data on the street children and their guardians, lodgings, means of operation and the age range of children involved in begging for alms.
The step was to use data to take initiatives, as well as seek a partnership with the Nigerien Embassy in Ghana, to rid the streets of those beggars and to protect the well-being of the children.