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Africa borders are porous - GIS
Accra, March 19, GNA - Ms Elizabeth Adjei, Director of Ghana
Immigration Service (GIS) on Monday attributed the
instability and insecurity in Africa to unresponsiveness of
governments coupled with its porous borders.
"Almost all African countries are vulnerable to insecurity
at the borders...Borders which ironically should define our
sovereignty and protect us from threats, have become sources
of violent conflicts in Africa," she stated.
Ms Adjei made this observation at the third Parliamentary
Training Workshop, dubbed: "Managing Ghana's Border
Security: "Toward an Integrated Framework."
It is organised by African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR)
in collaboration with the United Kingdom Defence Advisory
Team and Ghana Immigration Service.
The capacity building training workshop is aimed at
enhancing the oversight roles of the Parliamentary Select
Committee on Defence and the Interior ministries and to
introduce the parliamentarians to the principles and
dimensions of border security and its management.
Ms Adjei noted that security and stability are leaking in
Africa due, in part to weak and unresponsive governments as
well as vast ungoverned territories resulting in border
disputes or leading to conflicts in internal politics.
Speaking on: "Securing Borders in a Globalizing World:
Challenges for Ghana," Ms Adjei called for integration of
all security forces - Military, Police, Immigration, and
Border.
"We must be prepared…..adequately equipped to exercise total
control over our borders. We must avoid at all costs, the
fire brigade concept, where we react to panic situation.”
Professor Eboe Hutchful, ASDR Executive Director explained
that border management has recently become more widely
perceived as a frontline of the struggle against a variety
of old and new threats.
These threats include trans-national crime, drug running,
arms proliferation, human trafficking as well as threat of
spill-over from intra state conflicts.
He therefore called on Governments to adequately equip
frontline security agencies to exercise total control over
legal borders.
GNA
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