The Kotoka International Airport (KIA) Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service, has received 17 Ghanaian deportees from Germany on board a chartered Flight.

The deportees, all males, aged between 21-60 years, were escorted by sixty 67 Police officers, including paramedics.

An official statement copied to the GNA said they were deported for immigration-related issues such as overstaying their entry permit.

The statement said 15 out of the 17 deportees, who had stayed in German between three and 10 years, arrived on Travel Certificates issued by the Ghana Embassy in Berlin, Germany, and the other two on Ghanaian passports.

Ten of the deportees are from Ashanti Region, five from Greater Accra, and one each from Bono and the Northern Regions, it said.

The Assistant Superintendent of Immigration, Barbara Sam, the Regional Public Relation Officer, KIA, said one of the deportees who is a University graduate and has lived in Germany since 2016, told her that, "he is not bitter about the deportation because he was given three months visitors permit to remain in the country but rather stayed beyond that."

He said he feels disappointed in himself for wasting all these three years and had not done anything meaningful with his life.

In a related development, the Government of the United Kingdom (UK) has also deported five (5) Ghanaians for over staying their entry permit. The five, who also arrived with a chartered flight, were escorted by 63 British officials, including two paramedics, and an from the High Commission, as an observer.

The deportees who are aged between 26 – 60 years, were working and schooling and had lived in the UK for between five months and 10 years.

Three of them arrived with UK Overstay Certificates issued by the British Authorities and two on Ghanaian passports.

Two of the deportees were from the Ashanti region, two from Greater Accra two and one from Bono Region.

In all, a total of 22 deportees had been received by the KIA Regional Command from UK and Germany.

They were admitted into the country after going through the necessary arrival procedures, including screening, to authenticate their nationalities and counselling by a Clinical Psychologist.

Present at the exercise were officials from the Ghana Immigration Service, and other security agencies, including the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO), which facilitated the transportation of the deportees to their various destinations.

The Commander of the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service, Assistant Commissioner of Immigration, (ACI) Edith Penelope Arhin, advised, prospective travellers to always endeavour to travel with the requisite documents and visas and also ensure that they return within the stipulated period to avoid forced deportation.

She said forced deportation could ruin their chances of ever travelling to that country again.