The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) says lack of the relevant border management technologies, communication equipment, all-terrain vehicles, motorbikes, patrol routes, arms as well as the lack of proper border infrastructure has seriously undermined the operational effectiveness of the service.
As a result, criminal networks within the West African sub-region have exploited the situation as Ghana has about 3,200 kilometres of land borders, stretching from the east, west and north with the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and of varying typography with several river bodies, lakes, streams, as well as mountains, making the border demarcation spongy and porous.
Director General of GIS, COP Dr Peter Wiredu said this at an orientation and interactive meeting of the new GIS board with management and regional commanders.
He was worried that unlike Togo and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana has no specially constructed patrol routes along its borders, making it very difficult for officers to effectively patrol along the borders using the present fleet of vehicles.
He said beyond economic threats, the activities of terrorist groupings in Nigeria, Sudan, Mali and some countries in the East African Region also pose security challenges.
According to him, the threats require that border operatives on institutions are adequately equipped to handle the possible infiltration of these groups into the territorial boundaries of the state.
COP Dr Wiredu said with the general elections in Nigeria and possibly that of Burkina Faso coming up, the threats have heightened, and pleaded that the processes leading to the approval for officers of GIS to wield weapons be fast-tracked to ensure effective patrolling of borders as well as the safety of officers.
The GIS Director General disclosed that GIS has no functional headquarters and uniquely identified regional headquarters in all regions of the service.
He said the true benefits of migration could only be derived if the requisite structures such as policies, laws and implementation framework of relevant state institutions involved in the management of migration were enhanced and co-ordinated.
Minister of the Interior, Mr Mark Woyongo announced that Ghana is in the process of finalising its first-ever national migration policy to facilitate the management of the country’s internal and international migratory flows.
The policy is intended to enhance national development as well as sub-regional, regional and global interest, and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), the lead state institution in the management of migration in Ghana, has a daunting task of leading its implementation.
He said the ministry was also leading and facilitating the agenda to re-enact the Immigration Service Act 1989 (PNDC Law 226) to make the service more relevant and adequately strengthen it to discharge its mandate.
According to him, Cabinet has already approved a draft bill in this respect, and this will be laid before Parliament for further action.
“The ministry is also assisting the service to finalise the GIS regulations, which, when completed, will greatly better the conditions of officers while in active service and on retirement,” he said.
Mr Woyongo said it was important to recognise that in the current dynamic phase of the globalisation process, migration was inevitable and it would be an illusion to believe that goods, capital and services could move freely across state borders without a simultaneous expansion in the scale and scope for human mobility.
For his part, the Chairman of the GIS Board, Mr Cletus Avoka, said the GIS was a key statutory agency in the national security architecture of the nation as it served as the frontline agency responsible for the management and control of the nation’s borders, as well as the first point of contact for travellers arriving in the country.
“The board is determined to ensure that the service gets its fair share of the national cake and cease being the poor cousin of the other security agencies in the country,” he assured.
In spite of all the challenges, he noted that personnel had chalked important achievements, details of which, he added, were captured in the handing-over notes the board received.
<<Print>>