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11.02.2016 General News

Immigration Service Battle Ready To Defend Borders

…As Officers Jubilate Over Clearance To Handle Weapons
By Cletus Abaare
Immigration Service Battle Ready To Defend Borders
11.02.2016 LISTEN

The Ghana Immigration Service led by Mr. Felix Sarpong, the new Director of the Service, has revealed that its men and women are battle ready to safe guard the borders of the country to prevent illegal entry of persons who intent using unapproved routes into the country before and during the 2016 general elections to cause troubles.

This revelation comes after the passage of the Immigration service act by parliament clearing officers of the Service to bear ammunition to enhance their works at the various borders and general duties in the country.

Speaking to The Republic Newspaper in an exclusive interview, Controller of Immigration who heads the Public Affairs Department of the Service, Mr Francis Palmdeti noted that Personnel of the service had in the past relied solely on their colleagues at the Custom Excise and Preventive service to deal with hostile violators of the country’s immigration laws.

He said the Service had always lamented its deficiency in dealing with crime at the borders because they were not by law allowed to wield ammunition to fight back at criminals who wanted to force their way in the country using unapproved routes.

Mr. Francis Palmdeti who described the move as an exciting news to the entire personnel of the Service, said the decision to arm the service is part of efforts by government to ensure that the various security agencies especially the Immigration Service is well placed to fight terrorism.

“For so many years, we have had the border patrol unit, they have worked with their bare hands but now the bill has been passed and they are now entitled to bear arms. This will make our officers especially those at the borders more effective to fight back when the need arises,” he stated.

The objective of the bill which has been sighted by the Republic Newspaper is to ensure the effective administration and management of migration in the country; and contribute to national security on matters pertaining to migration.

The Public Affairs boss of the service noted the new bill is also to set up the border patrol unit of the immigration service which will be the first line of defense in our country. This, he said, after President John Mahama approves the bill making a law, they will arm the border patrol unit of the service first and other officers as in when the need arises.

He disclosed that the new Director and former Deputy Director of operations of the GIS with 34 years of immigration experience is working hard to make the service more effective to be able to discharge its constitutional mandate to the good people of Ghana.

He continued that is it the duty of the security enforcement system to develop intelligence capacity to monitor emerging trends in order to prepare strategies and tactics to be embarked upon to frustrate or manage security threats. This, he said, the service is ready to collaborate with other security agencies to gather intelligence and use same to track down criminals at the borders as well as in the country.

He said the GIS is also ready to work closely with responsible Journalists to get a comprehensive understanding of the political environment to enable them to formulate appropriate policies based on the early warning signs to avert any violence that may occur and the borders of the nation safe from intruders who may want to come into the country and cause confusion.

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