Youths to desist from using desert to travel

Nkoranza (B/A), May 13, GNA - Akuaba Theatre Production has staged a performance at Nkoranza to educate the youth to desist from using the Sahara Desert to travel abroad.

The performance, held at the main lorry station, on 'Benefits of Legal Migration and Effects of Illegal Migration', was sponsored by the Ghana government, European Commission and the Italian government. It was aimed at educating the youth who desire to travel through the desert to Libya and other foreign countries to desist from the practice and acquire the relevant travel documents. Mrs Felicia Owusu-Ansah, Executive Director of Akuaba Theatre Production, advised the youths that as future leaders they needed to protect themselves from practices and activities that could lead to their demise.

"Ghana needs you, the country is proud of you and you need to treasure your lives, so that you can live to contribute meaningfully to national development," she said.

The Executive Director asked them to seek advice from officials of the Immigration Service before they embarked on any foreign trip, to avoid embarrassment or the ultimate loss of life. Mrs Owusu-Ansah announced that her outfit in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration would continue to undertake such dramatic performances to sensitize the people on problems associated with illegal migration.

The performance depicted the scene in which persons described as "connection men" processed fake travelling documents including passports for people desirous to travel abroad illegally and the challenges they faced during the trip.

The challenges included death on the desert due to illness and arrests by security officials who often maltreated such illegal travellers and kept them in cells and camps. Another challenge portrayed by the drama was how hundreds of such illegal migrants perished on the high seas. Mrs. Owusu-Ansah appealed to the youth at Nkoranza to take a clue from the drama and to engage in any illegal migration.

Meanwhile Mr Gabriel Amisare Gyamfi, a 37 year-old father of three at Kranka in Nkoranza district has advised the youth in the area to take their education seriously to enable them acquire gainful employment in future.

Gyamfi, who recently returned to Ghana and enrolled at the local Junior High School after a two and half year sojourn in Libya, was sharing his experiences abroad with the Ghana News Agency at Kranka. He confessed that life outside Ghana without a good education was not easy and expressed regret about how a number of youth were desirous of undertaking the risky journey abroad as most of them did, with some dying on the desert or on the high seas. The returnee said in spite of his responsibility as a father, he would try and learn hard to further his education, so he could obtain employment and earn a decent living in his motherland. Mr Kyere Kumsah, Headmaster of the School, expressed his satisfaction with the student's conduct and called on the other students to emulate Mr. Gyamfi and be serious with their education. He appealed to philanthropists and well-to-do individuals to consider Gyamfi plight and support him in his education.

In another development, Scholars in Transit, an NGO based at Nkoranza, has launched a programme dubbed "Sweet Home Campaigners" to bring all Ghanaian returnees from Libya and other foreign countries together to form an association.

Rev Peprah Twumasi, Chief Executive Officer of the NGO told the Ghana News Agency that about 45 of the returnees had already been registered in Nkoranza North and South districts. He said the NGO aimed at encouraging the returnees to engage in income-generating activities towards their rehabilitation. The Executive Director stated that members of the Association would be made to share their experiences to expose the hazardous nature of illegal migration, to discourage potential migrants from undertaking such "suicidal trips".