Students sensitised to illegal migration
The United Nations Association of Ghana has organised a day’s forum for some senior high school (SHS) students in Accra on the challenges of illegal migration.
Advertisement
The objective of the sensitisation programme was to educate the students on the dangers of illegal migration.
The forum, which was aimed at giving the students an insight into the challenges that illegal immigrants faced, brought together students from schools such as Accra Wesley Girls High School and Accra Academy.
“Stay in your country”
In her address, the Vice Chairman of the Secretary General of the United Nations Association of Ghana, Mrs Janet Edna Nyame, said majority of illegal migrants were the youth, hence the need to educate them to desist from the practice.
Giving statistics from the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), she said 346 Ghanaians aged between the ages of 20 and 40 were deported from Europe within the first three months of 2011.
Mrs Nyame said the association targeted SHS students because many students fell victim to illegal migration and they formed the majority of the people often deported.
She urged the students not to be swayed by the false stories they heard from returnees because most of them did not tell the truth about what they faced.
Considering the fact that most travelled due to unemployment, Mrs Nyame said it was better to learn a trade or some form of vocation in Ghana if one was not able to continue with his/her education instead of travelling illegally.
Other Trending Stories
Mrs Nyame noted that most prospective migrants were also ignorant of the economic and socio-cultural challenges they would face on their arrival.
She, therefore, urged the students to stay in their country instead of going through the hustle and bustle in other countries.
Consequences
For her part, the Head of Migration Management Bureau of GIS, Mrs Adwoa Sika Anim, said illegal migration was rampant in Ghana with lots of them being the youth.
She mentioned fatalities in the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, underemployment, poor living conditions and overworking in dirty, dangerous and difficult work sites as some effects of irregular and illegal migration.
Most of the immigrants, she said, ended up engaging in prostitution and other activities because they did not have the right and genuine documents to allow them to get decent jobs.
She said aside from the possibility that they might be intercepted and deported, illegal immigrants might also be trafficked for exploitation, including sexual exploitation, while others might also be engaged in criminal activities.
Mrs Anim said there was pressure on North African countries to clamp down on irregular migration occurring over their territories through increased border controls, tightening of migration laws, readmitting irregular migrants from Europe and deporting others from their territories.