The British High Commission in Ghana on Wednesday, 2nd June, 2021 handed over an office facility to the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) to serve as special operations unit which will track down on organized immigration crimes and document fraud related issues.
The office building was funded by the High Commission at a cost of £285,000 and was supervised by the Ghana Immigration Task Force (GITF) project.
The building is fully equipped with state-of-the-art facilities which the Task Force would use to detect immigration crimes such as labour exploitation, forced labour sexual exploitation and modern day slavery.
The Minister for the Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery who was assisted by the UK Home Secretary for Home Department, Ms. Priti Patel to commission the facility commended the UK Government for collaborating with the GIS to combat immigration related crimes.
Mr. Dery stated that immigration crime is a complex social, economic and political phenomenon that affects all counties and that these crimes undermine democratic institutions, retards economic development and contribute to instability.
The Interior Minister noted that Migration and Border security are priority to the agenda of both emigration and immigration destination counties and the vision of safe movements across international frontiers can only be achieve through stakeholder cooperation.
Ms. Priti Patel in her address, said irregular migration, modern slavery and human trafficking were dangerous and caused immerse misery to their victims, adding that the groups that perpetrated organized crime preyed on the most vulnerable in society for their own greed and the money they made fueled other dreadful activities.
“We need to work even harder than the criminals and they need to see that we are serious, effective and unrelenting”, she said.
The Task Force began work in 2018 and has been instrumental in the fight against immigration and transnational organized crimes. The office is expected to work 24/7.
