Breach of expats' laws: Immigration Service to be tough on hotel owners

The Ghana Immigration Service has hinted it will clamp down on hotel managers who violate laws on hotel services to expatriate guests.

Hotels managers by law are required to provide, on a weekly basis, details on foreigners who patronise their services but the Controller of Immigration, Head of Public Affairs Francis Palmdeti told JOY BUSINESS operators have for sometime now not complied with this.

According to him, they will embark on an exercise to ensure compliance of the law.

The Ghana Immigration Service is mandated to inspect the premises of hotels as well as the records they keep on foreigners who dwell in their hotels.

Speaking with JOY BUSINESS after an engagement with executives of the Ghana Hoteliers Association and the Ghana Tourist Authority, Francis Palmdeti indicated that one of the mandates of the Ghana Immigration Service is to “regulate the activities of foreigners. In the light of happenings within the sub-region and the activities of terrorist elements like Al-Qaida, Boko Haram, etc we felt that the kind of cooperation we have had in the past with hoteliers has to change and it was important for us to meet the executives of the Ghana Hoteliers’ Association and the Ghana Tourism Authority. This is to try and sensitize them on the provisions of the law and also solicit their cooperation as well as that of their members” he noted.

Mr. Palmdeti added that it is important that they cooperate with the GIS because it intends to rigorously enforce the law regarding hotels inspections.

He admonished the hoteliers to cooperate with the service saying it is in the interest of this country and their businesses.

“Once they are in the business of hosting clients, we would expect them to take details of those clients” he stressed.