Government to beef up security services

The government is to embark on a massive recruitment exercise to beef up the strength of the security agencies.

It has also put in place measures to provide the security services with the essential logistics to enable them to operate efficiently and effectively.

The Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery, who made this known at an international conference to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Centre for Migration
Studies (CMS), University of Ghana, in Accra last Thursday, did not give the numbers to be recruited but indicated that the move would ensure that citizens and their properties received the best of protection.

Sustainable development

The two-day conference on the theme: “Migration, security and sustainable development,” was to provide a platform for the presentation of papers on migration by both local and international participants.

Mr Dery said Ghana currently had a migration policy which, if operationalised, would help address the issue of irregular migration and other related issues which affected sustainable development.

He noted that the CMS had been very instrumental in shaping the migration environment in Ghana and had played a major role in the development of the national migration policy.

Freedom of movement

Mr Dery noted that Ghana was committed to the free movement of persons on the continent and had gone ahead, without prejudice to the security of the country, to implement a visa-on-arrival policy regime at a reduced fee for Africans.

“Inasmuch as Ghana is committed to free movement of persons, the security of the country is also of importance to the development and sustainability of the nation,” he said.

Mr Dery opined that the porous borders of Africa called for a standardised screening, registration and document issuance mechanism, which adhered to international standards and best practices.

Security for all

“To ensure the security of all, the Ghana Immigration Act has been passed to allow officers at the borders to acquire weapons to protect all persons,” he said.

A Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Charles Owiredu, said migration contributed in diverse ways to the socio-economic development of Ghana.

He commended the CMS for its efforts and collaboration in drafting the National Migration and Diaspora policies for the Ministry, adding that it marked the beginning of their engagement.

Governance frameworks

For his part, the Director of the centre, Dr Joseph Teye, said since its establishment, the centre had been contributing to the development of migration governance frameworks at the global level and had also collaborated with various international organisations to organise capacity-building programmes for public officials and social partners in West Africa.

He said migration had been increasingly securitised, especially by developed countries, in the wake of what was perceived as growing threats of terrorism and, in Africa, the link between migration and security manifested in identity, nationalism and citizenship crises.

A former Director, Social Development Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Professor Tekyiwaa Manuh, urged Ghana to take active interest in the Global Compact and adopt it to make it become useful for the country.

She said: “Until we restructure the economy regionally and continentally, we’re not going to make any headway”.

Undesirable outcomes

Dr Teye indicated, however, that despite the undesirable outcomes of migration, there were unique windows of opportunity to make it a triple win situation for the migrant, origin and receiving countries.

The founding director of the CMS, Professor Mariam Awumbila, said it had become necessary to establish a centre focusing on migration studies at the university, as migration had become increasingly important in both the national and global development agenda.

She said there had been new dimensions to the trafficking of persons, irregular migration, child and female migration, among other related issues.

Therefore, she indicated that it was necessary to coordinate and sustain multi and international disciplinary research into migration from a central point.

Background

The Centre for Migration Studies (CMS) is a multi-disciplinary centre located in the College of Humanities, University of Ghana, Legon.

It was formally established by the Council of the University of Ghana in November 2006 and began formal operations with its inauguration in November, 2007 with the core mandate to provide research, teaching and training, capacity building, policy assessment and dissemination in the area of migration.