Border operatives urged to shield women and children

Security Operatives in-charge of borders in Africa have been urged to position themselves to provide safe passage for women and children fleeing conflicts and violence across borders.

They are also to make the processing of travellers across borders easier to facilitate Africa’s integration.

Mr. Bonaventure Agortimevor, the Acting Director of Operations, Ghana Immigration Service, (GIS), said this at a ceremony to mark the Africa Border Day, at Aflao, Ghana’s most used eastern frontier.

The annual event was instituted by the African Union in 2007, under the African Union Border Programme, (AUBP), to help integrate citizens of the continent.

This year’s theme was, “African Year of Human Rights, with Special Focus on the Rights of Women”.

The thrust of the AUBP is to foster African unity through the delimitation and demarcation of borders, strengthening cross-border cooperation and capacity building.

Mr. Agortimevor said the focus was on the rights of women because of the varied challenges and violation of rights they suffered in times of conflict, while seeking safety.

He said as a result of the current conflicts surging within the continent, women and children were likely to suffer and needed to be provided permanent safety nets.

“We also have many of our ladies returning from supposed greener pastures in the Gulf States, with harrowing stories and that of abduction of ladies by terrorist groups, such as Boko Haram, which used them sometimes as suicide bombers,” he said.

Mr. Agortimevor said some of Africa’s 54 nations had guarded boundaries with others being partially guarded and un-demarcated.

However, the AU, he said, was working to have all inter-state borders delimited and demarcated by 2017.

He said despite the need to improve accessibility among citizens, strategies should be implemented to curb the movements of criminally minded persons.

Mr. Agortimevor noted that since 1970, when some pillars were erected to demarcate its borders, Ghana had not seen any improvement in terms of border infrastructure, therefore, it was lagging in the areas of technology and security accoutrements in securing its borders.

Ms Augustina Quaye, the Aflao Sector Commander of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, (GRA), expressed regret at the harassment of women, especially by male border operatives.

She said with only female operatives now detailed to conduct security checks on female travellers, the situation had improved,

Mr. Diye Tchar, a representative of the Togolese Customs, observed that women were the key movers in households - economically and socially in Africa - therefore all must be done to eliminate the impediments that amounted to the violation of their rights.

Togbe Amenya Fiti, V, Paramount Chief of Aflao Traditional Area, advised the border operatives to school themselves on the socio-cultural dynamics and circumstances of their operational areas to enable them to handle the people there with circumspection.

He also urged the operatives to handle suspects with civility, in accordance according with the laws.

Mr. Ezekiel Kportime, a Representative of the Ghana Mission in Togo, said urgent steps should be implemented to remove the bottle necks in the movement of people, goods and services across the borders to ensure that all the sub-regional integration concepts were attained.

Mr. Justice Amevor, the Commander, Aflao Sector of GIS, said African states needed to adopt the necessary political and legal instruments to address the challenges posed by the lack of delimitation and demarcation, which constituted the real obstacles to integration.