By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
The Ghana Immigration Service in the Ashanti Region has arrested 606 undocumented migrants in a dawn operation in Kumasi and its surrounding areas.
The swoop, conducted on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, led to the arrest of 606 such foreigners cutting across the various age and gender groups in an effort to rid the metropolis of such persons whose presence has become a bother to the locals, who have been making incessant calls on the Ghanaian authorities to act to rid them off the city.
An Assistant Inspector of Immigration, Elijah Abugragu, the Public Relations Officer of the Command, told Correspondent Nicholas Osei-Wusu in Kumasi, that all the arrested individuals have since been handed over to the national office of the Ghana Immigration Service who have in turn sent them to a holding centre at Prampram pending screening and possible deportation.
According to him, the number is made up of 381 children, 163 males and 72 females. They were rounded up at their safe haven such as Akwatialine, Dagombaline, Asawase, Sarbon Zongo, Aboabo and Allahbar, all in the Asokore Mampong Municipality.
The arrest is a sequel to an earlier action taken against similar migrants based in the national capital more than a year ago. The action in Ashanti was intentionally delayed as a strategy by the GIS to ensure the suspected irregular migrants did not escape arrest.
With time, the number of foreigners believed to be of Niger and other West African origin, continue to increase making their presence highly felt at major traffic intersections within Kumasi and the adjoining municipalities. Their presence has become a major source of concern for the locals and motorists as their main business is to beg for alms, sometimes violently attacking motorists who refuse to give them anything. For pedestrians who come close to them, these foreigners, using their children as the modus operandi, would follow and pester till an amount is given out.
Some local people have even accused those people of engaging in open defecation and other unhygienic practices.
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