Five foreign nationals have been arrested for entering the country through an unapproved route at Hamile in the Lambussie District of the Upper West Region.

The regional command of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) said the migrants who are all Burkina Faso nationals aged between 15 and 27 were arrested at the weekend.

They rode into the country on two motorbikes with registration numbers 32-UJ-6586 and 32-JW-5633 at Beat 2 unapproved route bordering Burkina Faso.

The regional PRO for the Service, Ibn Yussif Duranah Abdul-Mumin Seidu, said that “preliminary investigations revealed that they were travelling to Kumasi and Techiman for farming purposes”, he said.

Mr Seidu explained that the illegal migrants were screened by the Port Health Personnel and handed over to the Burkina Faso authorities on the other side of the border and their motorbikes, impounded.

“As far as our operational functions are concerned, coupled with the President’s directive on the closure of our borders as part of the measures to halt cross border infection of Covid-19, the Ghana Immigration Service is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that undocumented, prohibited and irregular migrants are not allowed entry into Ghana through unapproved routes”, he said.

Mr Seidu, therefore, entreated the general public, particularly, the border residents to collaborate with GIS and to volunteer information on illegal migration to them to help end the menace.

“The service wishes to remind the Ghanaian citizens who are complicit in the exodus migration of other ECOWAS nationals into Ghana through unapproved routes to either desist from the illegal act or be prepared to face the wrath of the law," he warned.