Accra, Sept. 6, GNA - The Ministry of the Interior has put in place mechanisms to establish a Migration Unit to co-ordinate with the relevant institutions to build the needed capacity to manage migration. Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, the Sector Minister, said on Wednesday that the Unit would focus on how to make migration a tool for national development and provide support for an inter-agency Migration Commission, which would advise Government on migration issues. The Unit would also provide reliable migratory flows in the country and map out areas of high migration pressures.

Mr Kan-Dapaah made the announcement in Accra when he launched the 2006 State of the World Population Report, which threw the searchlight on Women and International Migration.

The 105-page report, under the title: "A Passage to Hope", with five chapters, notes and indicators as well as notes for quotations; examines the impact of female labour migration on source and destination countries.

It also looks at remittances and discusses the benefits of globalisation and its dark side of the scourge on human trafficking and the exploitation of female domestic workers. The Re ort points out the contributions of female migrants to both families at homes and communities abroad as well as the global economy are enormous but their needs and contributions have been largely ignored.

However, discussions on the issue of women migrants on the international migration agenda have been low.

Mr Kan-Dapaah noted that Africa had experienced its fair share of both forced and voluntary migratory movement, but the problem extended to all members of the international community.

Citing instances in Liberia, Sierra Leone and La C=F4te d'Ivoire, the Interior Minister said migrations were usually beyond the control of displaced persons and in most cases created innocent victims of conflict.

He said the right to seek asylum in other countries was a fundamental human right, which should be respected.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said Ghana recorded a significant contribution of remittances of 800 million dollars from remittances in 2005 and this was projected to reach two billion dollars by 2007.

He said despite contributions, the cost involved in the loss of medical staff and other professionals and skilled workers could not be offset by the inflows.

He pointed out that 2,393 out of the 13,323 nurses were lost to the brain drain in 2003. Of the 2,026 doctors trained, 812 left the country. Two years (2005) later, the Ministry of Health estimated a nurse vacancy of 57 per cent.

The Interior Minister said the nation must organize itself to reap the benefits of migration and added that Ghana would use its membership of the International Migration Organisation (IOM) to support its efforts in putting migration high on the national development agenda. Mr David Terzi, IOM Country Representative in Ghana, said there had been a dramatic rise in the number of women who independently went abroad to work, tracing such changes to the increasing roles of women. He said there was a need to study migration in gender specific terms to ensure that there was equity for female workers to stop being subjected to exploitation and abuse.

Mrs Virginia Ofosu-Amaah, Chairperson of the National Population Council, said there was a need to periodically review legislation governing immigration and emigration to ensure that they were inline with obligations under the various international agreements. 06 Sept 06