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03.06.2008 General News

Youth cautions against illegal travelling

By GNA
Youth cautions against illegal travelling
03.06.2008 LISTEN

Ms. Belinda Sika Anim, Deputy Superintendent of Immigration at the Ghana Immigration Service, has cautioned the youth against forging travelling documents, saying the practice was punishable by law.
She was speaking at a forum on Legal Migration at Nkoranza organised by members of Nkoranza Scholars Association and aimed at educating the youth about the problems associated with illegal migration across the Sahara Desert to Libya and Europe.
She expressed concern about how some people used forged passports or impersonated other people while travelling outside and said such criminal activity had led to the imprisonment of a number of youth in some countries.
Ms Anim said a number of youth who constituted the productive age group of the nation died on the high seas through illegal migration and advised the youth to desist from the practice.
“I advise such persons to rather endeavour to process relevant travelling documents to avoid such mishaps”, she said.
Ms Anim said the Ghana Immigration Service had set up a counselling unit to educate and counsel people who would like to travel outside Ghana.
She said the unit would also encourage such prospective travellers to acquire relevant documents so they would not be found wanting in other countries and urged the youth to patronise the unit.
Mr. Kwabena Afena-Sam, Brong-Ahafo Regional Youth Coordinator, said illegal migration was a major problem in the region as most youth travelled abroad through unapproved routes and went through hardships.
He called on the youth to take their education seriously so they would acquire gainful employment.
The President of the Nkoranza Scholars Association, Reverend Frank Peprah Twumasi, said a number of the youth in the area had managed to travel to foreign countries especially Libya, Spain and Italy through the Sahara Desert and this had encouraged some students, mostly boys, to abandon their education to undertake such trips.
Nkoranza has been a transit point for the youth in Brong-Ahafo Region who undertake the trip to Libya and studies have revealed that they embark on such risky trips across the Sahara Desert in groups every Tuesday.
Rev. Twumasi appealed to the youth to desist from the practice and rather aim at pursuing higher levels in education.
The Nkoranza District Director of Education, Mr. Kwabena Agyemang-Badu, said he would arrange for educational talks in Junior High and Senior High schools in the Nkoranza South and Nkoranza North districts to smother their desire to travel to Libya and rather to concentrate on their education.

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