Brong-Ahafo Region tops in illegal migration

Techiman (B/A), April 30, GNA - The largest number of Ghanaians repatriated from overseas, especially Europe, are people from the Brong-Ahafo Region, Dr. Kwasi Apea-Kubi, the Deputy Minister of the Interior, has said.

Dr. Apea-Kubi, who was launching an information campaign to prevent illegal and irregular migration on Wednesday, said "about 60 percent of Ghanaians deported from Europe are indigenes from the Brong-Ahafo Region."

The programme under the theme "facilitating a coherent migration management approach in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Libya by promoting legal migration and preventing further irregular migration" was organised by International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare. It was jointly sponsored by the European Commission (EC) and the Italian Government and aimed at providing information and creating awareness of the dangers involved in irregular migration and to promote the benefits of legal migration.

Dr. Apea-Kubi expressed regret about the tragic events of at least 200 migrants who were reported missing after an overloaded boat sank about 48 kilometres (30 miles) off the coast of Libya. He therefore advised the youth not to put their lives in danger.

Dr. Apea-Kubi said the government was putting in place an enabling environment to empower every Ghanaian to fit in the system. "It is possible to make it in Ghana provided one wants to work and make it." He expressed the hope that the major stakeholders of the campaign would coordinate their efforts by utilizing the variety of communication tools to make a long-lasting impact.

Mr. Jo Rispoli, IOM's head of the technical cooperation department and international programme manager in Accra, explained that the campaign scheduled from May to July is to reduce migration through unapproved routes and to provide information on regular migration options and regulations to actual and potential migrants. He said in the framework of this project, 25 Ghanaian government officials were taken through training workshop in June 2008 to develop labour migration policies, adding that a technical working group had been established to develop a draft labour migration policy for Ghana.

Mr. Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, suggested to students of social sciences including sociology and population studies to research into reasons underpinning the desire of the youth to migrate overseas.

This, he explained, was because despite the constant local and international media reports concerning problems that illegal migrants were going through a lot more remained adamant to follow the same trend of travelling abroad.