Ghana busts trafficking ring
2005-02-23 14:26
Accra - Ghana's immigration service on Wednesday announced it had broken up a Chinese human trafficking ring which promised jobs in Europe and the United States to Chinese migrants smuggled in and then out of the West African country.
The bust highlights the growing problem of illegal immigration to Ghana by migrants from around the globe who believe that access to Europe or North America will be easier from Africa than from their home countries in the Middle East or Asia.
Seven Chinese nationals who paid as much as $5 000 each to the ring allegedly run by Lin Xianglan and her husband were to be deported on Sunday, Ghana Immigration Service director Elizabeth Adjei said.
Xianglan, 45, was also taken into custody and is expected to face trial on charges to include fraud.
"There was nothing legitimate to what she was doing," Adjei said of the Chinese businesswoman, who was also the operator of a Ghana restaurant and casino.
"She came in as a visitor and all of a sudden owned a restaurant, which was already operating."
According to the GIS investigation, Xianglan had registered the Al-Las Company in a bid to take advantage of the benefits offered to businesses operating in one of Ghana's commercial Free Zones.
The Free Zones are commercial havens that allot tax relief and liberal employment quotas to manufacturers who base their operations in Ghana.
The concept has been promoted by President John Kufuor as part of his economic reform plan to rid Ghana of its external debt and grow its economy.
Preliminary interviews with the suspect and the would-be migrants suggest that they were recruited in China and then, using false documents, were able to obtain visas from the Ghanaian embassy in Beijing.
After a brief stay in Ghana they were to head to the United States, again using false documents.
Adjei said "several hundred" Asian migrants have been caught by GIS and returned home - ironic, she noted, in a country that has in recent months had to repatriate dozens of its own nationals nabbed by European and Libyan immigration officials trying to make their way north.
"We had Ghanaians in mind for our anti-trafficking operations; we did not plan for this new phenomenon," she said.
Regular flights from East African airports in Kenya and Ethiopia are packed with aspiring immigrants, and Ghana's land borders with Togo and Ivory Coast are also conduits for migration.
"People are using our country as a transit point, with their final destination being the United States or Europe," Adjei added.
"We have been very much aware for some time (of the trafficking problem) and have begun to raise scrutiny when Asians arrive at our port, or our airport. Some of them are even bearing tickets for Mexico City." - AFP
- SAPA