A Chinese restaurant suspected to be a brothel closed by the tourist board

General News on Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Source: Graphic.com.gh

2019-06-11

The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) has closed a Chinese restaurant known as KTV 86 Chinese Restaurant and Bar, which operates without a license.

The facility, located in Labone, was raided Monday, June 10, as part of a national exercise to enforce the law on tourism L.L. 2238 and L.I 2239.

In addition to operating a restaurant that the GTA has described as illegal, the owners of the establishment would operate a brothel as an undercover business behind the restaurant.

About 14 beds, consisting of bunk beds and single beds, were found in three separate rooms and only Chinese nationals would have been allowed to frequent the "brothel".

The premises were impure when Graphic Online accompanied the GTA officials and there was no manager of the restaurant management in the vicinity, with the exception of a few bar waiters and cleaners.

Exercise

Sending to Graphic Online, Greater Toronto Area Interim Director of Operations, Michael Kpingbi, said they had been informed by police last Tuesday to come and evaluate the facilities and determine if they had been allowed.

He added that, according to their records, the facility was neither registered nor approved.

"This facility belongs to Chinese nationals and the police informed us of some clandestine activities taking place here. and since the GTA was mandated to regulate restaurant and hotel services, we quickly checked our records and we have nothing about them, which means they operate illegally, "he said. .

He added that the minimum requirements for the registration and licensing of host institutions were also not met, which explained the closure of the institution.

"However, the police have taken over the case and have already detained a number of Chinese women linked to their illegal operation," he said.

National Exercise

The Greater Toronto Area's General Manager, Mr. Jones Nelson, said that the exercise was part of a law enforcement exercise at the University of Toronto. 39 nationally by the Greater Toronto Area to crack down on tourism businesses engaged in illegal activities.

He added that the law required the Greater Toronto Area to enforce the 2008 Tourism Act (Act 817) to authorize and register all tourist facilities.

"We are ending the Accra exercise that we started last Monday. Our next stop will be Tema, the central region, then we will continue to other regions. However, Accra was specifically a week because of the numbers; for the other regions, it could take two or probably four days depending on the number of facilities in the area, "he said.

He added that the Greater Toronto Area had visited 106 facilities in Greater Accra alone in one week.