By Ewoenam Kpodo
Akporkploe (VR), Sept. 6, GNA – The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), Aflao Sector Command, has said residents in border communities are at higher risk of human trafficking hence the need for them to be vigilant.
The growing menace, defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the purpose of exploiting them for profit, affects millions of people, including children, women and men.
Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI), Mr Justice Kudzo Normeshie, Officer in charge of Public Affairs Unit, and Anti-Human Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons (AHSTIP) Unit, GIS Aflao, highlighted the need for residents to cooperate with border control officials and report suspicious activities of strangers especially, in preventing the human violation.
He made the call when he led a delegation from the Sector Command to educate congregants of the Triumph Temple Church at Akporkploe, a border community in Aflao on human trafficking and border crossing during their 10th Anniversary celebration.
DSI Normeshie, citing two incidents of Friday, August 30, said it was time border residents stopped seeing GIS and sister security personnel stationed at illegal border entry points as enemies and threats to their free movement across the border.
He said on that day, 24 Ghanaians trafficked and forced into prostitution in Togo, were through the collaboration of the Ghana Embassy in Togo and the AHSTIP Unit of the Aflao GIS and the assistance of Togolese Police officials, rescued at Agoe-Nyive and brought back to Ghana.
Further, in the evening of same day, the Unit moved to protect two children, aged one and two, who were being trafficked from Nigeria, and arrested the suspected traffickers after it received a call from one of the border communities that the victims were being kept in a house in the area.
“Few days earlier, I was at Fihokope and three women were weeping. I inquired from them the reason. They welcomed some strangers into their home. When these strangers left after three months, children of these women disappeared,” DSI Normeshie narrated.
“This only means one thing. Those of us in the border communities must be alert. Strangers come and we welcome them wholeheartedly as one of us and they perpetuate evil acts on our blind side.
As border residents, you should be vigilant because trafficking your children is just a matter of holding their hands and walking few minutes across the border which can be done with ease,” he warned.
The senior Immigration officer said apart from the risk of human trafficking, was the threat of insurgency, alluding to the recent attack on a Togo military camp and encouraged collaboration with the security providers to safeguard Ghana’s peace.
He also urged the residents to find non-violent means to address their grievances, especially during the electioneering period to keep the peace while asking them to ignore rumours that security officers planned preventing border residents from voting on December 07, assuring, no officer could stop an eligible voter from exercising his/her franchise.
Rev Joshua Tamakloe, President, Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, Aflao who gave the sermon, admonished men of God not to commercialise the faith for financial gains but serve faithfully for God’s reward.
GNA