Ghana feels international migration growing on oil discovery, economic success, remittances

Commissioner of Police (COP), Dr Peter A. Wiredu, Acting Director of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) on Wednesday noted that international migration is a priority on Ghana’s developmental agenda.

He said its impact was increasingly being felt in various sectors of the economy and could be attributed to the discovery of oil, stable democratic environment, economic success and significant amounts in remittance transfer from the Diaspora.

COP Wiredu was addressing, Regional Commanders and Members of Policy Planning Management and Evaluation (PPME) Unit of GIS at a capacity building workshop in Accra, which was financed by the European Union (EU).

He said available statistics at GIS indicated that there had been increase in people passing through Ghana’s borders and GIS was becoming more diverse and challenging.

“It is our estimation that these demands would assume a more complex dimension when the petro-chemical and gas industries are fully developed,” he added.

COP Wiredu said in September last year, GIS launched its Four-Year Strategic Plan (2011-2015), and in pursuance to that, several activities were on-going successfully to implement it.

He said knowledge and human capacity were critical to implementing successfully any strategic plan, which would be shared widely with stakeholders to empower them through greater awareness, and understanding as well as new skills and capacities.

COP Wiredu said the key challenge was to invest time and resources in networking and information sharing, as this would pay off by creating knowledge, legitimacy, and understanding of the reasons for change and the likelihood of implementation success.

Ms Daria Fane, of EU Delegation to Ghana, said since the adoption of Global Approach to Migration, Ghana was one of the countries, where migration assumed a prominent role in bilateral development and political dialogue with EU and lately, this role was increased as its impact was greatly felt in various sectors.

She said the EU financial assistance to undertake initiatives under the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility was provided through a range of external instruments, both geographic and thematic.

Source: GNA