The Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, has stated with great pride that Ghana has been voted the most peaceful country in the West African sub-region for three consecutive times.
He has attributed the feat to the collective efforts of the security agencies and the good people of Ghana. “Each and every citizen can claim part of this achievement,” he said.
Ambrose Dery was speaking at Wa where he commissioned two-bedroom houses at Kpaguri Estate for the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) recently.
“As I talk to you, we do know what is happening in the Sub-region – in Burkina Faso – and so we expect officers of the immigration to be up and doing in their jobs. We allow them in, but we want to make sure that people who come in are not on the blacklist. Therefore, they do not have a criminal record, and you are in the various communities to monitor that when foreigners come into your community, you should know where they live,” he said.
The Interior Minister subsequently appealed to landlords, and proprietors of businesses, hotels and all those residential accommodation providers that they have a duty to let Ghana Immigration Service know those foreigners.
“We welcome foreigners who come in, but we want to make sure that those elements among them to make Ghana unstable are dealt with,” he said.
On checks conducted by GIS on some selected routes, Dery acknowledged that he has also received complaint that people who are travelling over long distances say they are delayed unnecessarily by the officers of the GIS.
He told the function: “I want to appeal to both sects that generally citizenry do not understand the role Immigration Officers are playing.They might delay you on a journey, but is better they delay you and we continue to live in peace than they rush over their job and Ghana sinks into chaos, war and conflict situation.”
He,however, admonished GIS officers to be more professional when they are conducting search on commuters, adding that they should be snappy, “but in all respect, do explain what you are doing.”
The Comptroller General of GIS, Kwame Asuah Takyi on his part told the gathering that to tighten security across the country, his outfit has created 87 additional commands to tighten controls on illegal migration.
Asuah Takyi said, “Management of the Service has begun to mount inland check point at strategic locations along major border routes to serve as second level of checks to intercept all undocumented migrants who may have entered the country through unapproved routes.”
This strategy, according to him, would help to control influx of migrants into the country especially with the reopening of the borders of the country by the President of the Republic.He mentioned that as part of GIS strategy of expanding its mandate, it has created regional command for Kasoa emphasising that, the Kasoa sector Command now becomes the Central-East Regional Command.
This new Regional Command, according to the Comptroller of GIS, has a lot of undocumented migrants living and working in the region, and it will help to bring immigration enforcement to the door steps of the citizens.
In view of the above, Kwame Asuah Takyi called on all members of the public to support the security agencies by providing the needed information of suspicious characters and movements within their communities to the security agencies for immediate action to be taken.
