On 24 March 2022, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and ICMPD signed an MoU for the implementation of the second phase of the SMMIG project, funded by the Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Since 2018, the Government of Denmark has been supporting the Government of Ghana through the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), in enhancing the institutional and operational capacity of the GIS to combat irregular migration, with specific focus on document fraud detection, strategic planning and intra-agency coordination. This new project will see this support expanded and extended for another 3 years, till 2024, with ICMPD still as the implementing partner.
The constantly changing migration landscape means that border agencies such as the GIS need to continuously enhance their capacity, to enable them improve the services they deliver. Furthermore, identity management and document fraud detection is an important aspect of combatting irregular migration and crimes in general, since criminals often hide behind false identities. Hence, the work of the GIS needs to go beyond detecting fraudulently acquired travel documents to prosecuting offenders and securing convictions, to serve as a deterrent.
With a budget of 17.9M DKK, this phase of the SMMIG project covers different thematic areas such as intelligence, investigation, prosecution, planning, cybersecurity and inter-agency coordination. Moreover, the project includes a series of local level interventions, aimed at enhancing the capacity of the GIS at the regional level, specifically in Ashanti, Ahafo, Bono and Bono East regions of Ghana.
Managing migration and safeguarding the integrity of Ghana’s borders, is not a one agency effort, it requires a whole of government approach involving different government and non-government actors at different level and this is why inter-agency coordination and collaboration is an important feature of the new project.