The Ghana Immigration Service descended heavily on foreigners who broke immigration laws in 2013.

The Service repatriated 1,065 foreigners who broke immigration laws of Ghana to their respective home countries after exhaustive investigations.

This figure shows a significant increase of about 338% .over the figures recorded in 2012.

In all, 1,281 persons were arrested for committing various immigration offences in 2013.

A Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) report seen by The Finder indicates that 65 Ghanaians were arrested in 2013 for violating immigration laws and regulations. Offenses committed include possession of counterfeit passports, fake visas, photo substituted passports and impersonation.

In addition, 265 ECOWAS nationals were arrested for committing various immigration offenses, including possession of counterfeit passports and visas, fake visas, photo substituted passports, impersonation, illegal residence and employment.

According to the report, 65 companies that were found to have breached immigration laws were sanctioned to pay penalties for employing 365 expatriates without immigration authorisation.

It said 951 non-ECOWAS nationals were also arrested during the year under consideration.

This consists of 884 Chinese nationals, who were arrested for engaging in illegal mining, and 67 persons of various nationalities, who were also arrested for acting in contravention of Immigration Act 2000, (Act 573) Immigration Regulation 2001 (L.I. 1691) and other related laws.

One hundred and forty-seven persons of various nationalities were refused entry or not admitted into Ghana for failing to meet entry requirements during the period under review. This represents 0.192% decrease over last year’s Persons arrested in 2013 saw a significant increase over that of 2012 as a result of the strengthening of enforcement activities and pursuing intelligence-led operations in the year 2013.

The inter-agency collaboration to flush out illegal miners from the country is one of the reasons that accounted for the increase. Comparatively, the enforcement of Ghana’s immigration laws saw a percentage increase of about 109.65% of all persons arrested in 2013 over 2012 figures.

Persons arrested in 2013 were mostly Chinese nationals, who represent about 69.0% of all arrested cases.

Persons arrested in 2013 saw a big increase over that of 2012 as a result of the strengthening of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) enforcement activities and pursuing intelligence-led operations in the .year 2013.