The Minister for the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, has indicated that the government’s commitment to support and provide the needed equipment and logistics to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in order to secure the borders of the country.
According to the Minister, President Akufo-Addo recognises that the GIS and related issues are critical to the achievement of his government’s determination in making each resident in Ghana feel safe.
To this end, he said, the government was resetting the GIS into its rightful place in the national security architecture, since it was not only relevant at the borders, but also in each and every community in Ghana.
The Minister was speaking at this year’s Management and Regional Commanders Retreat, which was under the theme “Responding to the Evolving National Security Threats in the Era of Covid-19” here in Koforidua.
The three-day retreat would take care of issues, including restructuring of operations, redesigning of Regional Organogram, and reviewing the status of implementation of strategic plan for 2018-2022.
Touching on the theme, Minister Dery mentioned that the Covid-19 pandemic was a threat to national security and must be dealt with as such, since events around the world have clearly shown that no single country could tackle this devastating pandemic alone.
The Comptroller-General of the GIS, Mr. Kwame Asuah Takyi, stated that the retreat would also be a platform from both policy and operational perspectives to exchange information, share ideas, experiences and promote best strategies in migration management and security in the country.
The meeting further aims at finding ways of dealing with undesirable foreign elements staying illegally in the country, and to prevent illegal migration along the borders.
He paid glowing tribute to his officers for their satisfactory and valuable contributions in ensuring that the borders of the country are well protected as the state continues to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Comptroller-General was, however, quick to appeal to the government, through the sector Minister to see to the amendment of the Immigration Service Act 908 and its legislative instrument to meet the pension needs of officers when retired.
He disclosed that the current situation where certain categories of officers retire just like that leaves much to be desired.
On his part, the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, reminded the GIS of its mandate to regulate and monitor the entry, residence, employment and exit of foreign nationals, with responsibility of enforcing all the enactment relating to movement of foreign nationals in the country.
He continued that with a vision to deliver excellence in immigration management for national development, the service was faced with a myriad of challenges in the implementation of persons, goods, and services, with particular reference to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) protocol, insufficient logistics and financial constraints.
The Regional Minister, however, charged officers of the GIS to use the retreat to come up with strategies to solve migration management and national security issues, which have been a burden to the service, such as the high influx of immigrants from neighbouring countries, of which the Eastern Region is not an exceptional.
Mr. Acheampong further urged management of the GIS to consider and prioritise standard training for its officers at every level, with the aim of improving the knowledge of the officers and ensure that they are able to deal with situations they are confronted with.
He also appealed to management of the GIS to expedite action on the processing of illegal immigrants for deportation, as their continued stay in the country remained a burden on the scarce resources.
The post Gov’t promises good working environment for GIS appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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