The Deputy Ambassador of Germany to Ghana, H.E. Hans-Helge Sander has touted Ghana as the anchor of security in the sub region.

“Ghana has shown leadership in border security which is one of the key areas is national security”, he added.

The Deputy Ambassador made the remarks on Wednesday, when the Federal Police of Germany donated state-of-the-art document fraud detection equipment to the Training Centre of the Document Fraud Expertise Centre (DFEC) of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS).

The equipment include electronic microscope, modular stereo microscope and mobile microscope, among others which would aid in document forensic training of Officers of the GIS.

H.E Hans-Helge Sander praised the Service for achieving a lot of successes in the area of border security, adding: “the Embassy is happy to support Ghana in the fight against document fraud.”

He advised the GIS not to renege on its capacity building of Officers towards effective scrutiny of travel documents.

The Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration (DCGI) in charge of Finance and Administration, Mrs. Judith Dzokoto-Lomoh who received the items on behalf of the Comptroller-General of Immigration, expressed gratitude to the German Government and the Federal Police of Germany for the kind gesture.

She assured them the equipment would be put to good use for the benefit of Ghana, comity of nations and others stakeholders in the migration industry, adding: “it will help bolster activities of the Training Centre”.

The DCGI indicated that the donation was just on time to help arrest the dynamism in migrant crime and noted that the gesture was a demonstration of international cooperation in tackling transnational crime. “More needs to be done to ensure neighboring countries and other sister countries receive only desirable immigrants”, she added.

Mrs. Dzokoto-Lomoh called on the personnel to go beyond just detecting fake documents and prosecute offender and secure conviction. She advised personnel to take good care of the equipment, adding: “most importantly, we should deliver results.”

The Second-in-Command (2IC) of Document Fraud Expertise Center (DFEC), Superintendent of Immigration Frank Apronti, explained that all migration-related crimes, including drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling and terrorism, were rooted in fraudulent documents. “These devices will simplify document examination and their mobility will prove very useful in training officers across the borders”, he added.

Present at the ceremony were DCGI in charge of Command Post and Operations, Mr. Laud Kwesi Affrifah, Officer-in-Charge of DFEC, Chief Superintendent of Immigration (CSI) Kwabena Somuah Amponsah, Regional Capacity Building Officer, Alistair Rushton, Police Liaison Officer of the Federal Police of Germany, Dirk Kattlun and the Visa and Document Advisor at the Federal Police of Germany, Frank Dukpe.