Accra (Greater Accra) 7 April ?99

The government has announced new measures for the acquisition of Ghanaian passports. The measures require that application forms collected by District Immigration Offices should now be sent to relevant Regional Headquarters.

The Regional Immigration Commander on receipt of the forms shall send them to the Passport Section at the Immigration Headquarters under a covering letter, before they are sent to the Director of Passport. Only appointed liaison officers at the Ghana Immigration Service shall now handle the schedule, a statement signed by Nii Okaija Adamafio, Minister of the Interior and issued in Accra on Tuesday said. After the issuance of the Passports, Immigration Headquarters personnel or liaison officers shall collect them for distribution to the respective Regional Commanders, for collection by the applicants in person.

"With this new procedure it is expected that no individual, applicant or immigration Officer from the regions will send any application form to the passport office directly. "The general public is hereby informed that the passport office remains out of bounds to all persons except the officials working there, the statement said The statement explained that the government recently put in place some measures to make the acquisition of passports easier and more accessible to nationals, especially those living in the rural areas.

''Regrettably, this relaxation of the process appears to have created new avenues for the usual passport contractors and other fraudsters to undermine the integrity of the Ghanaian passport by illegally acquiring them for non-Ghanaians through misrepresentation and other fraudulent means.

"An increasing number of drug traffickers and other criminals from virtually all countries in the sub-region, as a result, now use Ghanaian passports for their illegal activities abroad while genuine Ghanaian travellers are subjected to indignities in world capitals due to the passports they hold.

The statement asked the general public to co-operate with these measures to help restore integrity and value to the Ghanaian Passport.