The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has received assistance from the government of the Kingdom of Denmark to strengthen border and migration management in Ghana.

The support comes in the form of a 5-year strategic plan from 2018 to 2022, which comes with an estimated amount of 1.3 Euros, equivalent to 1.5 US dollars.

Speaking to Journalists after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between both parties to express convergence of will, Head of Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) Department, ACI Faisal Disu, said the GIS-Danish project will strengthen certain core areas in the operations of the Ghana Immigration Service.

“This is actually assistance from the Danish government to the tune of 1.3 million Euros,” he said.

He added that the programme will strengthen the Document Fraud Expertise Center (DFEC) which has the capacity to check all sourced document from anywhere in the world. The Center, ACI Faisal Disu said, has been in existence since 2009 and has been working in collaboration with some state and foreign agencies checking and authenticating documents.

“We are trying to strengthen the policy planning monitory and evaluation unit which will be monitoring the GIS 5-year plan. Monitoring is everything, it will tell us how well we are doing or how off center we are going. It is necessary to monitor the plan as we go along and the project will give the PPME the capacity to monitor the plan for the next 5-years,” he noted.

The GIS-Danish project dubbed ‘Strengthening Border and Migration Management in Ghana’ (SMMIG) was launched at the GIS Headquarters in Accra. The project funded by the government of Denmark through the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be implemented by the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD).

It is to support the government of Ghana in strengthening institutional and operational capacities to manage irregular migration flows and also assist the GIS in the implementation of its 5-year strategic plan from 2018 to 2022.

The SMMIG will also strengthen the capacity of GIS staff to detect forged and falsified travel documents, provide training in profiling, imposter detection and risk analysis.

The project will further help to strengthen cooperation and information exchange between the respective units of GIS involved in the control of irregular migration while strengthening intra-agency and regional cooperation.

A major component of the SMMIG project aims to strengthen the effectiveness of document inspection through the provision of modern equipment at key entry points, at Document Fraud Expertise Center (DFEC) laboratory and for training purposes.