Thousands of African migrants missing on the high seas this year – GIS

By
Dennis Peprah, GNA

Abesim (B/A), Oct. 1, GNA – More than 1,733
African migrants are missing on the high seas as at September this year,
Assistant Commissioner of Immigration (ACI) Mr Charles Bediako, the Brong-Ahafo
Regional Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), said on Monday.

He said in 2017 about 4,092 Ghanaian irregular
migrants were repatriated into the country with Brong-Ahafo recording the
highest figure of 1,562.

Mr Bediako said this when speaking at the
opening session of a two-day media workshop on migration for some selected
practitioners at Abesim, near Sunyani.

Attended by about 30 journalists, from the
electronic and print media; the effective awareness raising and communication
on irregular migration workshop was organised by the International Organisation
for Migration (IOM) with support from the European Union (EU).

As part of the EU-IOM joint initiative for
migrant protection and reintegration in the country, the workshop is aimed at
empowering the participants to report accurately on migration.

IOM is a United Nations (UN) Agency that
upholds the human rights dignity and well-being of migrants in addition to
advancing understanding of migration issues.

In 2017, Mr Bediako said, 3,283 Ghanaian
migrants got missing on the Mediterranean, with 6,101 deaths recorded
worldwide.

He said migration or travelling was good, but
dangers associated with unsafe or irregular migration was enormous and
cautioned the youth against using unapproved routes to travel abroad.

Mrs Florence Kim, a Communication Expert at
the IOM, said the issue of irregular migration remains a global challenge,
hence the need to train the media to be able to report accurately on the
subject.

“We are not here to do propaganda but we
are here to give you the requisite tools to enable you cover migration
effectively”, she added.

GNA

قالب وردپرس