There is a growing air of confidence at the Ghana Immigration Service that after years of taking the flap for the presence of Chinese immigrants engaged in illegal gold mining, in the process of which they pollute our water bodies and environment without valid visas, resident and work permits, immigration bigwigs have finally succeeded in identifying one of the key suspects in the smuggling ring.
At the North Ridge headquarters of the service in Accra, the officers have zeroed in on Moses Alale, an Immigration Control Officer of the service, currently on interdiction for alleged complicity in the smuggling of vehicles into the country. His main accomplice, The Chronicle newspaper gathered, is Elijah Atinga, a Health Assistant in the service.
Alale is said to have aided 15 Chinese nationals to enter the country to engage in galamsey, without the relevant documents.
On Saturday, May 18, immigration officers at the Tema Regional Enforcement Unit intercepted nine Chinese nationals, who were believed to have been smuggled into the country with the connivance of the fugitive Alale.
According to The Chronicle sources in the service, eight passports belonging to the suspects have so far been retrieved. Immigration officers say their analyses of the passports of these illegal entrants have revealed that six of them entered Ghana from unapproved routes from Togo. One had arrived earlier on May Day, when attention throughout the country was on the celebration of Workers Day at the various regional and district headquarters.
The other, according to a usually reliable source at the GIS, had an expired resident permit issued on Friday, April 20, April 2012. The GIS has not been able to retrieve the passport of the ninth Chinese in question, but all of them had one thing in common.
Immigration officers are firm in their assertion that the Chinese arrival bore the hallmarks of Moses Alale, the interdicted Immigration Control Officer. The Tema Enforcement Unit, The Chronicle was told, has indicated to headquarters that Mr. Alale contacted the unit to grant bail to all the nine suspects.
There is the lingering feeling, though no official would confirm that the interdicted Immigration Control Officer indicated to close allies that he was contacted by a Chinese friend to secure bail for all the nine suspects.
Immigration officials told The Chronicle that all the nine Chinese suspects were from the Guangxi Province in China, and were likely to end up at the various gold mining sites in the country.
The GIS, The Chronicle has learned, are processing the Chinese for early repatriation to their country of origin. All the nine arrested would be restricted in future entry into Ghana. Many Ghanaians The Chronicle talked to prefer an outright ban of the nine arrested people from ever entering the country again.
According to our source, the Immigration Service has issued out command instructions to all border patrol units to step up patrols. The notion is that more Chinese nationals, finding it difficult to obtain visas from Ghanaian missions abroad, and on arrival at various entry points in the country, might attempt to find their routes to Ghana through neighbouring countries like Cote d�Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Immigration Service has issued a formal wanted note on Moses Alale (AICO1). He is described in the official wanted list as �an immigration officer who has jumped bail and is wanted by the Ghana Immigration Service.
�The GIS is hereby calling on the general public to provide information about this officer�s whereabouts, to enable the service apprehend him for criminal prosecution, and further administrative action. Alternatively, members of the public could report his presence to the nearest police station for his immediate arrest. Please call the following numbers; 0302-221667, 0302-224445, 0302-674125.�
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