Shama, March 22, GNA - The services of middlemen are not needed to process the biometric passports, Mr Frank Nunoo, Assistant Superintendent Officer (ASO) of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) at Sekondi has reiterated.

He, therefore, cautioned Ghanaians to beware of middlemen when applying for the biometric passport, which takes off this week from March 23, 2010. Mr Nunoo said this when he addressed students of Shama Senior High School in the Western Region at a lecture organized by the Research and Counseling Foundation for African Migrants (RECFAM), a Non Governmental Organisation in collaboration with the Ghana immigration Service and other related agencies.

The lecture was the fifth in a series of campaign programmes drawn by the organizers to educate communities in the Western Region on the need to combat human/child trafficking and irregular migration from and through Ghana.

Mr Nunoo said applicants of the biometric passports needed to be present at the Passports Application Centres in person with all the necessary particulars for processing.

He said besides, birth certificates, which would be required, pictures and finger prints would be taken at the designated application centres. Mr Nunoo warned that anybody, who would try to use illegal means to obtain the biometric passport, does so at his or her own risk because they would not succeed.

He, however, reminded Ghanaians that their current passports remained valid until 2015 when they would be phased-out from the system. Mr Mbinglo .A. Nsodu, Executive Director of RECFAM, advised students who wanted to pursue courses abroad to be sure that the institutions they were dealing with were genuine before they made any financial commitment. He said paying the fees was not a guarantee of getting a visa and so urged prospecting students to fall on RECFAM, headquartered in Accra, to make the necessary enquiries for them. Madam Hannah Yawson, a nurse at the Ghana Health Service in Sekondi educated the students on the dangers of contracting Sexually Transmitted Diseases.