British High Commission donates to Visa Fraud Unit

Page 23: Daily Graphic, June 5, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE British High Commission has presented office equipment worth GH¢25,308 and Toyota pick-up valued at $22,000 to the Documentation and Visa Fraud Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service.
The Immigration Liaison Manager of the High Commission, Mr Paul Stafford, who presented the items on behalf of the United Kingdom Border Agency International Group at a ceremony in Accra, said since the establishment of the unit, the number of people arrested for submitting forged documents at the Commission had decreased dramatically from more than 1,000 in 2005 to 330 last year.
“It clearly shows that our joint efforts have got the message across but obviously there is still work to be done and hope that our donation can assist the CID in their work,” he said.
Mr Stafford said it was in recognition of the good work of the CID to counteract document fraud and illegal migration that the UK Border Agency decided to support the CID since the two shared similar goals.
He noted that the prevalence of forged documents could affect the genuine traveller who are forced to undergo further scrutiny because of the actions of unscrupulous persons.
For his part, the Director-General of the CID, DCOP Frank Adu-Poku noted that crime in the contemporary society had become very sophisticated and networked and as such, fighting crime required modern equipment and a lot of intelligence gathering.
He said it was in that vein that the Ghana Police Service was grateful to the British High Commission for their co-operative partnership with the police to get rid of miscreants in the society.
He said since the establishment of the unit, the British High Commission had supported the unit in its investigations and intelligence gathering, and training among others.