SECOND BATCH OF LIBERIAN IMMIGRATION OFFICERS UNDERGO CAPACITY-BUILDING (PAGE 19, MAY 15, 2010)

THE Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) is expected to train 150 Liberian officers and 20 trainers under a two-year project to strengthen the institutional capacity and competence of the Liberian Bureau of Immigration and Naturalisation (BIN).
In that direction, the second batch of 50 immigration officers from Liberia arrived in the country yesterday for a three-month training programme.
The training is aimed at revitalising and overhauling the Liberian immigration sector.
It brings to 100 the number of Liberian immigration officers currently undergoing capacity-building training in border and immigration management in the country.
At the airport to welcome the Liberians were the Deputy Director of the GIS in charge of Operations, Mr Moses K. Gyamfi, and some immigration officials.
Mr Gyamfi appealed to the officers, comprising 40 males and 10 females, to conduct themselves in the same manner the first batch did.
He said the GIS would not compromise on discipline and urged them to channel their grievances through the appropriate quarters, not take the law into their own hands, while undergoing training at the GIS Academy and Training School at Assin Fosu in the Central Region.
He said the training formed part of a tripartite two-year project agreement signed last year among Liberia, Ghana and The Netherlands, under the auspices of the United Nations (UN), aimed at professionally overhauling and revitalising the Liberian immigration.
He said the physical endurance and academic training could enable the officers of the BIN to become efficient and responsive to contemporary immigration trends through training and capacity building.
Mr Gyamfi commended the UN for providing logistics to airlift the first and second batches of Liberian immigration officers from Liberia to Ghana for the course to improve their skills in border management and safeguard the security of Liberia.
Mr Varney Carmon, the First Secretary at the Liberian Embassy in Ghana, who was at the airport to welcome his compatriots, urged them to comport themselves to project the good image of Liberia.
Mr Emmanuel Minnaar, the Immigration Attaché at The Netherlands Embassy, said the course for the second batch would be an improvement over that of the first batch because of the lessons learnt.
He said the course was the result of fruitful co-operation that existed among The Netherlands, Ghana and Liberia and urged the participants to help advance that international co-operation.