Ministry comments on alleged detention of Ghanaians in Turkey

Accra, March 23, GNA- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration on Monday stated that investigations are continuing to establish the authenticity of the alleged detention of 50 Ghanaians who tried to pose as delegates to the Fifth World Water Forum currently taking place in Turkey.

A statement issued by the Ministry said investigations conducted so far by Ghanaian authorities indicated that 13 people with false Ghanaian passports arrived in Istanbul from Lagos on March 2009. The investigations revealed further that the Turkish National Security also detained 14 nationals of Guinea who arrived the same day, ostensibly to attend the same Forum.

The release stated that; "The Ministry wishes to draw attention to activities of some unscrupulous individuals who go online and search for details of genuine conferences about to take place in Europe and elsewhere.

"They then entice persons seeking to travel to Europe without proper documents to pay huge sums of money as registration fees and visa and then use such conferences as pretext to travel. "Invariably, the fraud is detected and the individuals involved are arrested, detained and deported. Such individuals also risk being prosecuted and imprisoned for violating the immigration laws of the countries concerned."

The Ministry has therefore warned the public to beware of these schemes and not to fall prey to them.