Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has revealed that 379 foreigners have been arrested and their Ghana Cards confiscated after attempting to use them to apply for Ghanaian passports.
Speaking at a press conference, the Minister said interviews with the individuals confirmed they were not Ghanaians, highlighting the Ministry’s intensified efforts to curb such fraudulent activities.
“Foreigners are trying to lay their hands on our passports. We need to be ahead of the threat,” Ablakwa stated. “We are rolling out a no-nonsense approach: any foreigner attempting to obtain a Ghanaian passport will be promptly apprehended and prosecuted.”
He attributed the rise in such cases to the increasing value of the Ghanaian passport, which now grants visa-free access to 42 countries.
To strengthen security, Ablakwa announced new measures, including restrictions on the passport registration system. “No mobile phone number will be allowed to register more than five passport applications. We detected multiple attempts by the same numbers, and these have now been blocked in our system,” he explained.
The Minister further noted that the enhanced security framework considers community demographics and family structures to prevent abuse of the system.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed its commitment to protecting the integrity of the Ghanaian passport and warned that anyone caught violating these measures would face prosecution.
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