Ghana tightens border

Story: Albert K. Salia
GHANA is beginning to reap benefits from the deployment of border patrol personnel in October last year as the personnel continue to make interceptions of both smugglers and persons attempting to use unapproved routes to enter the country.
So far, 26 bales of second-hand goods, footwear, cloths, chocolates and cigarettes of smuggled goods were intercepted at the eastern corridors of the country. Those goods were handed over to the sector commands of the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS).
A little over 105 Nigeriens, Chadians, Ivoriens and a Cameroonian were also arrested for attempting to enter the country without requisite documentation.
The acting Deputy Director of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Mr Moses K. Gyamfi, made this known in an interview in Accra after opening a two-day workshop on Border Security Management for immigration officers in Accra.
The workshop was organised by the Premier Institute of Law Enforcement Management and Administration (PILEMA), a University College of Criminal Justice.
Mr Gyamfi mentioned Nyive, Menoso, Aflao, Hamile, Paga and Elubo, as well as inland border posts as Sogakope and Ho, as some of the routes that the interceptions were made.
According to him, three people who were also caught at Half-Assini by personnel of the Border Patrol Unit for attempting to traffic a child, were also handed over to the police for further investigations.
Addressing the participants earlier, Mr Gyamfi said border management and security assumed a high position on both international and national security agenda after September 11, 2001.
He said it was within that framework that the government found it necessary to re-configure the country’s border management to secure its borders and mandated the GIS to create a unit within its structure to patrol the country’s borders.
He said the GIS began the implementation of the border patrol policy in October 2006 with the training and deployment of the first batch of fully militarised personnel.
Mr Gyamfi said under the Border Patrol Strategic Plan, 4,500 personnel were expected to be recruited and deployed by 2009.
He said the service was currently securing parcels of land in the regions and sectors to enable it to access the infrastructural development funding to provide appropriate office and residential accommodation.
Mr Gyamfi urged the border patrol officers to effectively oversee the implementation and operation of the policy in their jurisdictions.
He reminded them that the task of securing the borders included physical patrolling and apprehending illegal immigrants, drug traffickers, smugglers, suspected subversive elements, human and animal traffickers as well as preventing currency trafficking and money laundering.
“Already, within this short period of patrolling the borders, significant successes have been chalked up with the interceptions of groups of illegal immigrants of various nationalities, mostly at the eastern borders, smugglers and various quantities of smuggled goods,” he said.
He said while mindful of preventing illegal immigrants from entering the country, the service was committed to balancing its duty with the facilitation of free movement of goods and persons in and out of the country to boost tourism and foreign investment as part of the economic development strategy.
“The nation is counting on you as the implementers of government policy to do all in your power to ensure the success of the new border management strategy,” he added.
The Public Relations Officer of the GIS, Mrs Maud Quainoo, in a welcoming address, said the workshop was part of efforts to establish a formidable border patrol unit.
She said the management of the service, cognisant of the fact that a knowledgeable employee was an asset to the organisation, decided to organise the workshop to enhance the capacity of the officers to deliver in their jobs.