Parliament approves Immigration Service Act
Parliament has given approval for the passage of the Immigration Service Act which seeks to strategically position the service to deliver on its mandate and contribute to the maintenance of law and order in the country by ensuring that only legitimate persons are allowed entry, residence and employment for national and international security.
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The purpose of the bill, which was taken through a second reading at the sitting of the House last Thursday, is to re-enact the Immigration Service Act, 1989 (PNDC Law 226) to address current challenges facing the service.
Purpose of bill
The bill spells out the functions of the service as its operations have seen some marked expansion over the years and these additional roles need to be regularised.
Besides, it seeks to expand the operational structures of the service by creating more departments, sections and units to support the three existing directorates.
Moving the motion of a second reading, a Deputy Minister of the Interior, Mr James Agalga, who is also the member for Builsa North, stressed the need and importance for the elevation of the hierarchical command structure of the service as the present designation of its head as ‘’Director’’ is not consistent with other security institutions.
Status of head
Mr Agalga said the status of the head of the service as ‘’Director’’ creates problems of ‘’due recognition’’ both locally and internationally, as the Director is sometimes equated to a Director within the ministries, departments and agencies.
Another major issue is the ranking system compared to other security services which places the service as the lowest number of ranks both at the senior and junior levels and that the situation has resulted in stunted career progression and engendered huge administrative and disciplinary challenges for the service.
The Chairman of the Committee on Defence and Interior and member for Ablekuma South, Mr Fritz Frederic Baffour, presenting the report of the committee, said the “Director’’ of the service was two ranks below the Inspector-General of Police and equivalent to the Commissioner of Police and Director of Prisons.
The committee proposed that the head should be designated as the Comptroller-General with a Deputy Comptroller-General.
Mr Baffour said the committee was of the view that the disparities in the ranking system of the service did not auger well for its personnel and stressed the need for uniformity, clarity of purpose and consistency with the other security agencies.
He said the committee had, therefore, made a number of proposals to correct the distortions in the ranking system to bring those in the service at par with their counterparts in the other security services.
Borders
He said Ghana had about 3,200 kilometres of land borders which stretched from the east, west and north with the Atlantic Ocean to the south. He said the porous nature of the border demarcations may be exploited by criminal networks within the sub-region over the years to carry out their activities.
He said the GIS, therefore, needed legislative and administrative backing to effectively manage these borders, particularly in the wake of civil and military unrest within the West African sub-region.
It said the establishment of the border patrol unit, document fraud expertise centre, migration management bureau, enforcement and intelligence bureau were but a few of the manifestations of the increasing responsibilities.
Members who supported the committee’s report also called for the arming of the service personnel to enable them to police the porous borders as the service constituted the first line of defence of the country.