A total of 4,201 foreign nationals have been removed from Ghana since 2025, with some of those deported now attempting to re-enter the country through unapproved routes to avoid detection at monitored border posts.
The Minister for the Interior, Mr Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, said gaps in Ghana’s border-monitoring system were making the situation more difficult, with only 12 of the country’s 48 legitimate crossing points equipped with biometric monitoring systems.
Mr Muntaka made this known on Monday (August 24, 2026), at a press briefing dubbed Government Accountability Series.
According to him, six border posts were equipped with the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS), while another six had the Personal Identification Secure Comparison and Evaluation System (PISCES).
This leaves 36 of the 48 legitimate crossing points without either system to monitor people entering and leaving the country.
Mr Muntaka said the gap was being exploited by some foreign nationals who had previously been removed from Ghana.
“Sometimes when we remove people and they know they’ll pick their fingerprints, when they are coming back, they won’t come back through Aflao or the like because they know that if they pass there, they’ll be caught because they’ll be put on the stop list,” he said.
“So they try to use the unapproved routes.”
Mr Muntaka said the government was strengthening surveillance along unapproved routes through mobile technology.
He said the mobile devices would allow immigration officers to capture the biometric details of people encountered along such routes.
“When they meet you, they’ll just scan your hand and then and there get you onto the record,” he said.
The Minister also disclosed that 50 anti-ballistic cabins had been procured and were being strategically deployed to strengthen border security.
He said the equipment included drones capable of monitoring areas up to 15 kilometres from a command centre.
Twenty mobile units were also available to support surveillance, he added.
Mr Muntaka said unapproved routes were not limited to the Volta Region but also existed in the Western Region and parts of northern Ghana.
Mr Muntaka said the Ghana Immigration Service had removed 2,281 migrant beggars from the streets and 774 other illegal immigrants involved in transnational organised crime by the end of 2025.
By July 2026, he said another 960 migrant beggars had been removed from the streets of Accra and Kumasi, together with 186 other illegal immigrants.
The figures bring the total number of removals in the two categories to 4,201.
The figure comprises 3,241 migrant beggars and 960 other illegal immigrants removed during the two periods.
Mr Muntaka said the government was pursuing the exercise while taking into account Ghana’s obligations under the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement of Persons and its diplomatic relations with other countries.
He said the exercise was aimed at reducing irregular migration and unlawful activities associated with it while ensuring that enforcement remained lawful and respected human dignity.
The Minister’s latest comments follow previous warnings about unapproved border crossings in Ghana.
In June, he disclosed that 102 unapproved entry routes had been identified in the Volta Region alone.
He said the routes were facilitating the movement of foreign nationals into Ghana without proper documentation.
He also said residents in some border communities were assisting foreign nationals to enter the country through the routes.
On Monday, Mr Muntaka again appealed to Ghanaians to stop helping foreign nationals circumvent Ghana’s immigration controls.
He said some citizens were assisting foreign nationals to obtain Ghanaian identity documents even when the persons were not Ghanaian.
He warned that such practices could undermine the integrity of Ghana’s national identification system and make it more difficult for security agencies to establish who was lawfully in the country.
Mr Muntaka said the government’s tougher border measures were not intended to undermine Ghana’s tradition of hospitality or its obligations under the ECOWAS free-movement regime.
He said Ghana’s relative peace and stability continued to attract people from countries facing security and economic difficulties.
At the same time, he said Ghana had a responsibility to protect its borders, maintain public order and safeguard national security and economic interests.
According to Mr Muntaka, the main challenge was no longer a lack of political will, intelligence or leadership but the scale of the problem.
He said logistical support was being mobilised to expand removals and strengthen border controls.
The government, he said, expected the impact of the measures to become more visible in the coming period.
