The mission’s representative presenting the ignition key to the CGI
The British High
Commission (BHC) has donated a Toyota
Fortuner vehicle to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) for use in its newly created
visa fraud and related offences unit.
The vehicle was
handed over to the GIS by the Regional Capacity Building Manager, Mr. Alistair
Rushton, on behalf of the mission at the GIS National Headquarters in Accra
yesterday.
Other items that
were also donated to the GIS included specialized laptops, fraud detection
equipment, batons and handcuffs.
Speaking at the
ceremony, Mr. Rushton expressed the delight for the BHC to support and contribute
in building the capacity of officers of GIS, in intelligence gathering and
investigations, targeted at fake travel documents, illegal acquisition of visas,
human smuggling and trafficking, and activities of organised crime group.
He noted that the
BHC has over the years organised capacity programmes for officers of the GIS.
“Recently, eight Officers have been trained to investigate organised crime,” he
added.
Mr. Rushton who was
accompanied by Emma Hardy, First Secretary and Regional Manager of Africa for
Immigration Enforcement International, indicated that he was happy about the
set skills that had been acquired by the Officers to combat organised crime.
“The Officers are highly skilled and very friendly, they can function and
relate well with other sister security agencies, and I urge them to share
intelligence with sister security
agencies,” he said.
On his part, the
Comptroller-General of Immigration (CGI), Mr. Kwame Asuah Takyi expressed his
appreciation to the BHC for the kind gesture and for building the capacity of
officers for the specialized unit.
He said the service
was making strides in building the capacity of officers and equipping them with
the necessary tools and logistics in the fight against organised crime.
“Eight Officers were
identified and trained in digital forensic investigation, open source
investigation, unarmed combat, document fraud detection and investigation into
human smuggling and trafficking,” he noted.
The CGI indicated
that it has improved on work efficiency and enhanced the image of the Service
as well.
Mr. Takyi explained,
that recent developments on migration have made it a focal point of every
country, which he said required to be managed effectively to curb crimes. “One
aspect of managing migration effectively, is training and continuous capacity
building of our Officers,” he added.
