By Blessing kekema
Seventy- two Nigerian ladies arrested for illegal entry into the country and for engaging in prostitution are to be deported.
The ladies arrested alongside eight Ghanaians and a Togolese, last week, during an operation in some brothels and hotels at Madina, an Accra suburb, allegedly entered the country illegally and had been engaging in prostitution.
In order to advance their criminal business, some of the girls, reportedly erected kiosks from where they operated. According to the Ghana Immigration Service, the area was gradually being transformed into a ghetto.
The girls, who have been handed over to the Ghana Immigration Service, for further action were likely to be deported soon.
A senior official of the Ghana Immigration Service, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration, Linda Asare Mantey said that the suspects were arrested during a swoop on the area. The Immigration acted on intelligence it gathered, she further said.
Mantey indicated that they were illegal immigrants, as none of them had a valid passport. Eight of them, who claimed they had passports, could not produce the document on request.
She said the girls were arrested in some hotels in the area, where they worked as commercial sex workers, while others were picked up, as they openly solicited for customers stressing,” it is illegal to come to the country and engage in prostitution.”
An official at the Nigerian High Commission, reacting to the incident described the activities of Nigerians, who engage in prostitution as a national embarrassment.