Ghana Immigration Service to investigate reports on children’s involvement in ‘gallamsey’ in UWR
The Upper West Regional Command of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) will soon commence serious investigations into reports of alleged involvement of children in illegal mining (gallamsey) activities in the Region.
The command said it was necessary to carry out the investigations on the alleged reports received by the command in order to ascertain the degree to which the children were involved in the ‘gallamsey’ activities to enable it to adopt measures to protect them.
Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Sampson Ofori-Danso, Head of Enforcement and Operations Unit in the Region, mentioned this during a Regional Multi-sectoral Committee meeting on the rights and welfare of the child organised by the Department of Children in the region.
He said the command was also building the capacity of its personnel at the borders on how to check, identify and interview children to know whether they were being smuggled out of the country or into the country in order to effect arrest if their investigations proved to be true.
Mr. Israel Akrobortu, Acting Regional Director of the Department of Children said the meeting was aimed at bringing stakeholders on child protection in the Region together for them to take stock of their achievements during the year 2011 and chart the way forward for 2012.
Detective Corporal Gideon Dumenye of the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) of the Ghana Police Service, Wa, said 66 child related cases were reported to the Unit in 2011.
He said 40 of the cases involved failure to provide for children by parents, 13 cases of defilement of children under 16 years of age, nine cases of abduction of females under 18 years, nine on abortion, two on exposure of children to danger and one case of child stealing.
He said the Unit had been able to investigate all 66 cases and the necessary sanctions imposed on the perpetrators.
Madam Bella Kanmwaa, the Regional Coordinator of Early Childhood Care and Development at the Regional Education Office said in her monitoring activities she identified high Television viewing among children as a major cause of the poor performance of children who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Region.
Madam Kanmwaa who is also the Officer in charge of Special Education said she received several complaints on this issue from parents in almost every community she visited and appealed to parents to monitor their children and ensure that they did not put too much concentration on the Television.
Madam Rosaline Gbedi, a Representative of the Regional office of the Birth and Deaths Registry appealed to parents to register their children at birth and ensure that their names tallied with their academic certificates to forestall any future problems.
Other Departments represented at the meeting included the Department of Social Wefare, the Department of Women, Ghana Health Service, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), House of Chiefs, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), NGOs and Civil Society Organisations.
Source: GNA