Saudi Arabia deports 12 Ghanaian women

Immigration officers in Ghana have revealed that twelve Ghanaian women have been deported from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

They have been handed over to Ghana’s Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for further investigation, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) announced in a statement.

“Twelve Ghanaian females have also been deported from Saudi Arabia for illegal stay. The ladies, ranging from 20 – 30 [years] arrived on board Ethiopian Airline Flight ET with Travel Certificate.

“The ladies, most of them being JSS and SSCE graduates, were working as domestic helps” – nannies, cleaners and teachers to the children of their hosts. Some were also storekeepers and fuel attendants, the statement said.

It added: “Eight of them are from the Northern [Region], one from Bono, one from the Central [Region] and two from the Oti Region.

“Some of the ladies claimed in an interview that they were made to overwork”, the GIS statement said, adding that they had “their salaries withheld, and were not properly fed and maltreated by their host. They have since been handed over to the Bureau of National Investigations for further actions.”

Similarly, forty Ghanaians have also been deported from the United States of America for various offences.

They were charged for engaging in offences ranging from the trafficking of banned substances, assault, vehicle theft, burglary, fraud, domestic violence and immigration-related issues, the GIS said on Monday.

The GIS said the deportees were taken through a rigorous screening exercise to ascertain whether or not they were Ghanaians.

The statement said: “The KIA Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service, has received forty (40) deportees from the United States of America onboard a chartered flight, Omni Air International Boeing 777-OAE328.

“The Ghanaians, aged between 21 and 70, comprising thirty-eight (38) males and two (2) females were deported for various offences ranging from the trafficking of banned substances, assault, vehicle theft, burglary, fraud, domestic violence and immigration-related issues.

“Thirty-eight (38) of them arrived on a travel certificate issued by the Ghana Mission in Washington DC, USA, while two (2) of them [arrived] on Ghana passports.”

The statement added: “The deportees are coming from the various regions in the country with sixteen (16) of them from Greater Accra, ten (10) from the Ashanti Region, two (2) from Bono, two (2) from Western, two (2) from Central; 3, Eastern and 3 from the Volta Region.

“They were admitted into the country after going through the needed disembarkation formalities including screening to authenticate their nationalities.”