Details are emerging of the operations of a syndicate that processes documents for Ghanaians (or any other individual bearing Ghanaian passports) to travel abroad as officials on courses, conferences and workshops. Following its earlier story on the issue about the arrest of Ghanaians at Istanbul Airport in Turkey, for posing as delegates to the fifth World Water Forum, the Times, in its investigation, has bumped into one of the deportees who has revealed some details of the scam on condition of anonymity. He told the Times, that 39 of them paid 3,000 dollars each to make the trip. He said the visa contractor (name withheld), charged each of them 3,000 dollars for ticket, and accommodation in Turkey, from where they were to travel to their final destination – Demark. Meanwhile, contrary to claims by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that deportees from Turkey who wanted to use the just ended water conference to flee to Europe were 13, investigations can confirm that the number was 98. Checks by the Times both at Egypt Air and Emirates Airlines revealed that the airlines flew out 39 and 59 travelers, respectively, as participants to the confab. Maher Hussein, Station Manager of EgyptAir, said 29 of the supposed 39 participants who registered for the programme were deported from Turkey but were earlier kept in custody in Egypt following hints that the 10 others had been repatriated. "The 39 were repatriated to Ghana on March 20," he said. Mr. Hussein admitted issuing tickets to an NGO­ cum-travel and tour operator, Yoshiken, but said that he had no knowledge that the said delegates were in possession of fake traveling documents. "We received a list of 39 persons with their names and passport numbers from the NGO, but without professions stated. I enquired from the NGO if the people involved had proper documentation and was told yes,” he said. However, the Managing Director of Yoshiken, Kaz Tamura, has denied being a middle man in the case of human traf­ficking and also declined to give the names of his "passengers". Meanwhile, a source has hinted that the 59 passengers who flew on the Emir­ates were Nigerians who managed to ac­quire Ghanaian passports. It is also emerg­ing that many of those deported were Nigerians who had managed to come by Ghanaian passports. In Accra, the Regional Manager of Emirate Airlines, Mr Sudhri, told the Times that his outfit issued tickets to 50 Ghanaians with va1id documents to at­tend the water conference, and that all of them had returned home. However, this reporter, who was at the forum, could count only seven Gha­naians at the forum. What is even most puzzling was what had happened to the deportees since their arrival back in Ghana. The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) when confronted said it was inves­tigating the circumstances leading to the repatriation of the Ghanaians from Tur­key. The Director of Immigration, Ms Elizabeth Adjei, in an interview with the Times Tuesday said the outcome of the investigations would help the GIS to prop­erly keep data on such circumstances for other usage. "The outcome of the investigations will be fed into our Migration Information Cam­paign to enable us to educate the populace on such activities by criminals, " she said and added that the operations department was currently putting the data on the inci­dent together for action to be taken. Asked of the whereabouts of the deportees, she said the practice is that when such a thing happens, the crew of the airline informs Immigration officers at the Airport for proper data entry on the persons. But when they are returned in trickles they mix up with the normal travellers and go home. Meanwhile, Emirates Airlines has denied any collusion in flying out people with fictitious papers. A statement issued by the airlines signed by the Service Manager, Bedford Otoo in reaction to the Times’ story of Monday, March 23, under the headline ‘50 Ghanaians Detained at water confab in Turkey' said, "All passengers who were flown on Emirates to Turkey on that day had valid documents and were not detained nor de­ported. There are clear documents to show and prove." The statement claimed that the said re­port and subsequent discussions on the issue on the FM stations sought to create the im­pression that "our staff colluded with these passengers and extorted monies. "Emirates Airline is a reputable airline with professional staff who will not engage in such acts of fraud," it said.