Aliens without permits panic

The Dispatch says credible reports reaching it indicate that there is increasing unease and panic among non-Ghanaians working illegally in the country. This follows the deportation of a 28-year-old Liberian journalist, Darryl Ambrose Nmah last Tuesday for working in Ghana without a permit. Ambrose had since 1998, been working as a presenter at a private radio station, Radio Gold.

What The Dispatch discovered during its investigations was that whilst the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) may be doing its duty of ensuring that all non-Ghanaians working here have permits, some Ghanaians have taken the advantage to extort monies. What these opportunists have been doing is to approach employers, charging fees between ?3 to ?6 million, to help them get permits for non-Ghanaians working in their establishments.

Those who do not have access to the employers have been using the non-Ghanaians to get their employers to regularize their employment status. They have been citing the ?10 million Radio Gold paid as penalty for employing a foreigner without legal permit as a benchmark for the fees these fixers have been demanding.

Communities of foreigners have also panicked at rumours being circulated that the government intends to deport non-Ghanaians who have over-stayed the ninety-day ECOWAS permit.