The Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has embarked on the vigorous monitoring of foreigners in the country to enable the service to know the actual activities being undertaken by them and to weed out the criminals.

GIS Director, Elisabeth Adjei, said at an immigration service sensitization workshop for media practitioners in Accra yesterday that the enhanced monitoring exercise was to ensure that foreigners were made to abide by the reasons for which they were allowed into the country.

Through the exercise, there would be regular checks on the foreigners to authenticate the information they provided about their purpose in Ghana, Ms. Adjei said and asked the public to volunteer information about the illegal activities of foreigners for appropriate action, which includes deportation, to be taken.

She said that some foreigners have been found undertaking activities contrary to what they claimed they were coming to do, citing a foreigner who was arrested by the police recently for dealing in drugs, when he was supposed to be a lecturer at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration.

Ms. Adjei said GIS was collaborating with other security agencies in the monitoring exercise to enhance its success.

On the issue of passport acquisition, she confirmed reports that new Ghanaian passport with enhanced security features would be introduced soon.

At present, she said the passport production system "is a little outmoded," but the new system to be introduced has a modern technology to produce passports with high security features, which will make it possible to check the acquisition of multiple passports.

She commended the media for their contribution towards ensuring national security and for collaborating with the service.

The workshop, attended by over 30 journalists, was aimed at educating the participants on the operations of the service and to improve the relationship between the two institutions.

P. D. Asima, Controller of Immigration, giving an overview of the GIS, said the service was restructuring itself to efficiently enforce immigration regulations in the country.