A survey conducted by the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has revealed that about 6,000 people access the Aflao border daily.
Out of the number, about 3,000 people cross without proper identification and this poses a major security threat in the area.
A commander of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Mr Julius Gboglah, made this known when the Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey-Agbo, and members of the Volta Regional Security Council, met security heads at the border during a visit to Aflao.
The Aflao Border
The Aflao border has been identified as a place where a lot of nefarious activities, including smuggling, human trafficking, and robbery take place. Therefore, checking the identity of the people along the border is very important.
However, Mr Gboglah indicated that the system for identification of the GIS could only capture people who used passports and not other forms of identification cards.
‘We have an average crossing of over 6,000 people per day and the immigration officers were unable to deny them access because that could lead to chaos,” he said.
Profiling of people
The situation, he said, had made the profiling of those people very difficult and added that the GIS had decided to give out visas on a daily basis to pedestrians who used the unapproved routes and the main border as a means to check movement.
He called on the National Identification Authority (NIA) to assist the immigration to deal with the issue by issuing special cards to border residents for easy identification and added that the immigration should be involved in the processes of registration of such residents.
Works at the Border
The regional minister was accompanied by the security heads in the area.
The minister also inspected the new Ghana-Togo border yet to be completed at Akanu and expressed satisfaction with the work done.
He commended the security heads for their hard work and dedication which was an indication that they were doing their best in terms of revenue collection and security.
Measures to stop crime yield results
The Assistant Commissioner of Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) Customs Division, Aflao, Mr Ben Beckley, disclosed that measures were put in place by the border Security Council (BORDSEC) to minimise criminal activities and that they had yielded positive results as there were no reports of robbery or theft during the Yuletide period.
He said they had also extended operations with their counterparts in Togo and currently had a joint border security called Aflao-Kodzokope Committee which met often to deliberate on similar problems such as smuggling and human trafficking.
Non-existence of Link roads
The paramount chief of Aflao traditional area, Togbi Amenya Fiti V, also stated that the non-existence of link roads and vehicles for the police to go on patrols on unapproved routes were a major challenge.
According to him, the various check points had become very porous as innocent people who accessed the border for economic purposes were attacked and hijacked without getting help from security personnel who were understaffed.