GIS To Keep Biometric Documentation On Migrants

The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) will soon embark on a biometric documentation of all unregistered migrants from neighbouring countries, particularly Fulani herdsmen.

The move is to enable the GIS to map their locations and make the monitoring of their activities easier while in the country to ensure that undesirable elements do not infiltrate the country.

Director of Immigration, Dr Peter Wiredu, who announced this at the opening of the GIS Regional Commanders Conference in Accra said due to the ECOWAS protocol which allowed people from neighbouring countries to enter Ghana for 90 days without a visa, it had become very difficult for GIS to monitor them.

He said most of them provided invalid addresses and it became very difficult to check whether they were still in the country or not.

Dr Wiredu said with the support of the Danish Embassy and the Spanish protocol, a number of CCTVs had been installed at the main entry and exit points in the country to monitor the movement of people in and out of the country.

On Cote d'Ivoire, Dr Wiredu stated that the continuous political impasse in that country should heighten their resolve to ensure maximum border security, adding that reports of smuggling activities along the western corridor were alarming and urged the officers to step up patrol duties along the borders so as to curb cross border crimes such as human trafficking.

He challenged the officers to exhibit the highest levels of discipline in their activities and enforce the rules.

He, however, noted that “there are some officers who want to derail our efforts and bring the name of the service into disrepute and public ridicule.”

He, therefore, warned that the new administration would not spare anyone caught engaging in any disgraceful acts of corruption and other forms of criminal collusion and irregularities perpetrated at the various duty points.

For his part, Deputy Interior Minister, Mr Kobby Acheampong, who chaired the function advised the personnel to work very hard in order to enhance the image of the service.