Officers of the Ghana Immigration Service in the North East region, in collaboration with military personnel, have arrested 23 foreigners for entering Ghana illegally.

The operation by the joint security team forms part of ongoing efforts to enforce the border closure directives by government to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the country.

The arrested persons were made up of 15 Togolese and eight Burkinabe nationals.

According to the regional immigration command, these foreign nationals who entered the country through the unapproved routes were arrested after officers deployed at Nakpanduri intercepted a Yuntong vehicle with registration number AW 400-19 claiming to have left the Garu township.

Sources tell JoyNews the arrest followed intelligence received by border guards at the Missiga inland post that some foreigners were sneaking into the country via unapproved routes that connect to the Nakpanduri road to Kumasi and Accra.

Upon this information, the North East Region commander Chief Supt. William Peter Andoh, ordered his men at the Bunkpurugu command to quickly erect a tent and create a checkpoint to intercept these foreigners.

Subsequently, the vehicle was stopped and after a critical interrogation of the passengers on board, the 23 foreigners made up of 12 males, 5 females, and 6 children were detained.

The North East regional commander who confirmed the arrest to JoyNews said the foreigners when questioned said they were farm labourers traveling to Kumasi and its environs to look for work.

Chief Superintendent William Andoh said they have been escorted back to Togo and Burkina Faso with a caution not to illegally come into the country again.

This is the second major operation to be carried out by the immigration officials in the Bunkprugu-Nakpanduri district in the North East region since the closure of the country's borders.

The officers two months ago intercepted and repatriated over 80 foreign nationals who had attempted using the various unapproved routes to come into the country.