Police record 200 visa frauds

Accra, Ghana, 07/27 - The Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service said it recorded more than 200 cases of visa fraud between January and June this year.

The victims, mainly illiterate and semi-literate, were said to have paid between 3,000 and 7,000 US dollars to fraudsters or "visa contractors."

Patrick Ampewuah, Deputy Director of the CID, was quoted as having expressed concern about the desire of some Ghanaians to travel abroad at all costs when they could have invested such monies in profitable ventures at home.

He said when applicants were refused visas by Embassies or High Commissions, they acquired new passports under different names.

Ampewuah said the victims usually approached or were approached by the visa contractors to pay various sums of money to facilitate the acquisition of visas.

The fraudsters would then write invitation letters and also contact their agents and various banks to assist by preparing fictitious bank statements to be submitted to the embassies.

Some politicians, traditional rulers and musicians, he said, also collected huge sums of money from people to be included in delegations to travel abroad.

Ampewuah said since most of the victims were illiterate and semi-literate, they were unable to distinguish genuine visas from the fake ones or tell that the names on the passports were different from their own.

He said the victims were often repatriated after leaving Ghana, adding that some of the cases were pending in courts while others were under investigation.

Some 25 Ghanaians were recently deported from Italy after they failed to gain entry posing as Sudanese refugees.