Some of the participants
The Western Regional office of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) is taking steps to help build the capacity of its staff involved in the fight against irregular migration.
The staff of GIS in the region will also be trained on how to detect forged travel documents at the basic, intermediate and advanced levels.
The service organised two separate training workshops on Document Fraud Detection, Migration and General Border Security Enhancement among others for about 50 selected immigration officers in the region.
The training workshops were in line with the Strengthening Border Security and Migration Management in Ghana (SMMIG) and the Strengthening Border Security (SBS) in Ghana projects funded by the Danish Government and implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).
The SMMIG and SBS projects are designed to support the government in strengthening her institutional and operational capacities to manage irregular migration flows.
The Project Manager, Amala Obiokoye-Nwalora, indicated that examination and verification of travel documents is one of the main responsibilities of immigration officers.
She said that GIS officers therefore, require vigorous and regular training in the dynamic area of document fraud detection, in order to remain up to date.
“Between March and July 2021, the SMMIG and SBS projects have trained 300 GIS frontline officers drawn from all the major and minor crossing points on the frontiers with Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and Togo along the Eastern, Northern and Western corridors,” she said.
The Takoradi Sector Commander of the GIS said the training was part of the measures put in place by the service to curb irregular migration and other forms of migration offences across Ghana’s borders.
He admonished the frontline officers of the service to pay attention to the GIS health contingency plan, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in order to protect themselves and the travelling public.
ACI Thomas Ewuntuma, Head of Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Department (PPMED) at the GIS Headquarters, mentioned areas like Document Fraud Detection, Drafting of Migration and Health Contingency Plan among others where the service is paying much attention.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi