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Staff of Migration Information Centres of GIS sharpens skills

A two-day training workshop to enhance the capacity of staff of Migration Information Centres (MIC) of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) in information technology yesterday opened in Takoradi in the Western Region.

It forms part of the European Union International Organisation of Migration (IOM) joint initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration.

The objective is to equip participants with the relevant skills and expertise in awareness raising activities in communities, data security and protection, and also manage information campaigns effectively and efficiently.

The European Union Trust Fund (EUTF) Project Manager, Ms Pooja Bhalla, noted that Ghana was making great strides in reducing irregular migration, stressing that “helping a migrant goes a long way to sustain a family and the economy.”

She explained that the IOM project focused on sharing of information with migrants especially the youth, who want to migrate and equip them with the necessary know-how.

Ms Bhalla said migration had been an all centuries issue with abuses reported in recent times by perpetrators and characterised by new security trends and violation of   victims.

On local migration, she mentioned that counsel services were provided to victims of irregular migration as to how they could overcome the traumas and the life challenging issues.

The Western Regional Commander of the GIS, Deputy Commissioner of Immigration, Dr Prosper Delali Asima, said the region is the fourth on the table of returnees and that, the MIC was being created to serve potential and actual migrants and their families.

That, he however, added, could not be achieved without the requisite logistics, skills knowledge and attitudes.

Migration, he told the participants, was an enduring phenomenon in human history, stating that international migrating from sub- Saharan Africa to Europe and the United States had grown over the past decades, to about one million in 2020.

 “Statistics has shown that, a huge number of our youth from sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana have been embarking on irregular migration through the Northern States of Africa and have been perishing on the Mediterranean Sea and Desert  in their  quest to seek greener pasture in Europe. Between January to March 2018, 13,043 arrivals were recorded in Europe with 499 deaths,” he stated.

The Co-Chair of the EUTF project, Ms Rose Tsorhey, said dissemination of information on safe and legal migration was critical and thus, urged the participants to apply the knowledge that they had gained.

FROM CLEMENT ADZEI BOYE, TAKORADI

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