Thirty-six out of 48 legitimate border crossing points in the country are operating without systems to capture reliable data on people entering and leaving, the Minister for the Interior, Muntaka Mohammed-Mubarak, has revealed.
He said only 12 crossing points currently had systems supporting the collection of migration data, posing a major challenge to effective border management, migration governance and national security.
“We have what we call the PISCES from the United States government, which supports six of the crossing points and then we have the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) supporting another six, making it 12 out of 48,” he said.
Speaking at the launch of the IOM Ghana Strategic Plan 2026-2028 in Accra last Friday, Mr Mohammed-Mubarak called for continued collaboration with the IOM to address the gaps, while the government explored locally developed solutions.
He said the government was considering developing an in-house system to support data collection at the remaining crossing points, stressing the importance of reliable migration information for national decision-making.
“This is an area that we will be looking forward to working with IOM to address these challenges. As a government, we are working to see whether we can do something in-house or even develop a home-grown solution to that,” he said.
The new strategic plan builds on the 2022-2025 Country Strategy and aligns with the IOM Strategic Plan 2024-2028, Ghana’s national development framework, the Global Compact for Migration and relevant African Union (AU) and ECOWAS migration frameworks.
It is anchored on three priorities: saving lives and protecting people on the move, driving solutions to displacement, and facilitating pathways for regular migration.
The launch brought together government institutions, United Nations agencies, development partners and civil society organisations.
The minister said the government was exploring home-grown solutions to address the gaps and improve the country’s capacity to track human mobility.
He said accurate migration data was essential for national decision-making, effective border governance and the country’s ability to anticipate and respond to emerging security and humanitarian challenges.
Strengthening migration governance
Mr Mohammed-Mubarak said the new strategic plan provided an important framework for strengthening the country’s migration management systems, protecting vulnerable migrants and addressing threats associated with human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
He said migration remained an important feature of the country’s social and economic development, with the country serving as a source, transit, destination and return point for migrants.
The Interior Minister stated that when properly managed, migration could promote development, innovation, cultural exchange and regional integration, but poor management exposed vulnerable people to exploitation and created opportunities for criminal networks.
He said the strategy was focused on modern border infrastructure, integrated information systems, risk analysis, early warning mechanisms and improved inter-agency cooperation aligned with the government’s vision for effective border management.
He also called for stronger engagement with communities along the country’s borders, saying sustainable security required the participation of local populations in identifying emerging threats and strengthening social cohesion.
On human trafficking and migrant smuggling, the minister said the government welcomed measures under the strategy to strengthen prevention, identification, referral, protection, voluntary return and sustainable reintegration systems.
Practical implementation
The IOM Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Sylvia Ekra, said the success of the three-year strategy would depend on its practical implementation and the extent to which it improved people’s lives.
She said the real test would be whether the commitments of the strategic plan translated into tangible improvements in migration governance and protection.
“Launching a strategy is not in itself an achievement.
The real test will begin tomorrow,” she said.
Mrs Ekra urged stakeholders to make difficult choices about priorities and resource mobilisation to ensure the strategy delivered measurable results by 2028.
She said the country’s migration dynamics were closely connected to employment, health, education, climate resilience and peace, making coordinated responses essential.
She explained that interventions to promote employment and regular migration pathways must also protect migrants against exploitation, while support for returning migrants must extend beyond their arrival to create opportunities for sustainable reintegration.
Mrs Ekra said the country was well positioned to demonstrate how migration could become an important driver of development in Africa, particularly through policies linking human mobility to employment, skills development, trade and diaspora investment.
