Ghana’s borders are not porous – Immigration Service

The Ghana Immigration Service has denied assertions that the country’s borders are porous which has resulted in the high influx of foreigners entering the country illegally.

The Service in recent times has come under severe criticism for their perceived inefficiencies due to the increasing numbers of foreigners especially the Chinese nationals who are seen engaging in retail trading and illegal mining activities popularly known as ‘galamsey’ both considered the preserve of Ghanaians.

In an interview on Eyewitness News on Friday, the Public Relations Officer for the Ghana Immigration Service, Francis Palmdetti, denied the widely held perception of their laws and regulations being lax.

He said: “I have always heard people make comments that our borders are porous, we seem to allow foreigners to enter this country without any thorough scrutiny but that is not true.”

He explained that personnel in the service face a difficulty in ascertaining the true mission a foreigner has for entering into the country.

Citing the Chinese nationals as an example, he said “Chinese come into this country, apply for visas either at our missions or they are issued with emergency entry visas and when they arrive at the entry points…it is difficult for the Immigration Officer looking at the face of this foreigner to determine whether what he tells us his intentions are is really what he or she means to achieve or do.”

According to Mr. Palmdetti, until the Chinese nationals give them cause to doubt what they stated as their intention for visiting the country, “you can’t prevent him from entering the country merely by your suspicions that you think he is coming into small scale mining activity.”

He lamented the involvement of some Ghanaians in assisting these foreigners to engage in such illegal activities adding that some even go to the extent of luring the Chinese nationals into the country to assist them in the small scale mining due to their expertise.