This brings the number of interceptions and repatriation of illegal migrants by the Ghana Immigration Service in the Western Region to a total of 190, since the closure of the country's borders.

The latest operation, led by the Aowin Municipal Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Francis Kofi Apaw, arrested two Nissan Caravan mini busses with registration numbers GX 2137-17 and AS 1899-17, which were en-route to Kumasi.

Assistant Inspector Moses Akakpo, the Western Regional Public Relations Officer of the Immigration Services in a press release, said the intelligence led joint operation, which took place on Friday May 1, 2020, at about 0920 HRS, resulted in the arrest of 17 Burkinabes and an Ivorian, bringing the total to eighteen 18.

He said the suspects, all males, were aged between Seventeen 17 and Fifty-Five 55 years according to the information retrieved on their ID cards.

Assistant Insp. Akakpo said investigations conducted after their arrest, proved that all the suspects had entered the country through an unidentified illegal route at Sewum in the Aowin Municipality of the Western North Region.

According to him, the illegal migrants have since been repatriated after an emergency meeting with security heads of the Municipality.

He said, "At the said meeting, a unanimous decision to see to the immediate repatriation of these illegal ECOWAS migrants through the Sewum Border Post was arrived at".

He added that the Western Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service was committed to ensuring the continuous maintenance of optimum security within the various entry points in the Region.

He appealed to all well-meaning people of the Western Region, especially the leadership of the communities doted across the Border lines, as well as transport operators to assist by volunteering useful information in that regard.

The country's borders have been closed since the first two cases of the COVID-19 pandemic were recorded in early March this year.