The Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA), in the past week, has received a total of 22 deportees from Saudi Arabia on board Ethiopian Airlines flight.
The deportees, who are made up of one male and 21females between the ages of 21 and 38 years, working as domestic helps and driver, were deported for staying illegally.
This was contained in a press statement issued and signed by Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, Public Affairs Officer at KIA, Madam Barbra Sam yesterday in Accra.
According to the statement, the deportees arrived in the country with travel certificates issued by Ghana’s embassy in Saudi Arabia.
It stated that, the deportees who were mostly primary school, Junior High School (JHS) and Senior High School (SHS) leavers, had been in Saudi Arabia since 2015 and 2017.
“According to them, they were detained at a deportation centre in Saudi Arabia close to four months before their onward deportation to Ghana,” the statement said.
In addition, the statement indicated that, one each of the deportees were from Oti, Volta, Bono, Western, Central and Upper East Region.
Others were six from the Greater Accra and six and four from the Northern and Ashanti Region respectively.
Narrating their ordeal in an interview, the statement said, some of the ladies’ passports were seized by their hosts upon arrival, claiming they owned it because they paid for it.
“Sometimes they were made to overwork 24 hours, accused wrongly for crime they did not commit, assaulted, abused sexually and fed once a day with bread, resulting in some complaining of severe stomach pains,” the statement added.
It indicated that, a lady aged 25 also narrated her ordeal amidst tears, saying, she had to escape whilst her host was out of town to seek refuge at Ghana’s embassy in Saudi Arabia.
According to the statement, she advised the youth to stay in their countries and work instead of overly interested in travelling, particularly to the Gulf States, because some don’t even live to tell their stories.
It, therefore, urged the public to beware of connection men, who would lure them into the ‘seeming juicy deals’, mentioning huge sums of money as the monthly pay, which was non-existent.
BY TIMES REPORTER
