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| Africa Borders Are Porous - GIS |
3/20/2007 |
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Ms Elizabeth Adjei, Director of Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) on Monday attributed the instability and insecurity in Africa to unresponsiveness of governments coupled with its porous borders. "Almost all African countries are vulnerable to insecurity at the borders...Borders which ironically should define our sovereignty and protect us from threats, have become sources of violent conflicts in Africa," she stated.
Ms Adjei made this observation at the third Parliamentary Training Workshop, dubbed: "Managing Ghana''s Border Security: "Toward an Integrated Framework." It is organised by African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR) in collaboration with the United Kingdom Defence Advisory Team and Ghana Immigration Service.
The capacity building training workshop is aimed at enhancing the oversight roles of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and the Interior ministries and to introduce the parliamentarians to the principles and dimensions of border security and its management. Ms Adjei noted that security and stability are leaking in Africa due, in part to weak and unresponsive governments as well as vast ungoverned territories resulting in border disputes or leading to conflicts in internal politics.
Speaking on: "Securing Borders in a Globalizing World: Challenges for Ghana," Ms Adjei called for integration of all security forces - Military, Police, Immigration, and Border.
"We must be prepared adequately equipped to exercise total control over our borders. We must avoid at all costs, the fire brigade concept, where we react to panic situation."
Professor Eboe Hutchful, ASDR Executive Director explained that border management has recently become more widely perceived as a frontline of the struggle against a variety of old and new threats. These threats include trans-national crime, drug running, arms proliferation, human trafficking as well as threat of spill-over from intra state conflicts.
He therefore called on Governments to adequately equip frontline security agencies to exercise total control over legal borders.GNA
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