ECOWAS migrants in the region are not foreigners but citizens

Accra, August 3, GNA – The Economic Community
States of West Africa (ECOWAS) Protocol on the Free Movement of Persons
citizens of all Member States moving to other countries can not be
called aliens.

Instead of being qualified from abroad,
the revised protocol described all migrants from one of the 16 Member States as being
Community citizens whose goal is to give citizens the feeling of belonging to a member
country in which they migrate.

Tony Luka Elumelu, Program Director
Head of Management and Migration of the ECOWAS Directorate in charge of
Free movement has drawn the attention of Ghana officers to this fact
Immigration Service (GIS): "Migrants from ECOWAS extractions are not
foreigners but citizens of the community ".

He spoke during an interactive session
with GIS as part of an advocacy and awareness campaign on free movement
and migration from ECOWAS and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

He urged security officers to be
with the new protocol of the ECOWAS Commission and also be more friendly
in their operations especially in the communities that they operate to serve as
motivation of citizens to help them carry out their mandate.

Dr. Elumelu said that it was important for all
security officers to know that ECOWAS identity cards were now allowed.
travel document in the Community as adopted by the Commission.

He congratulated the Government of Ghana for
out of four Community third countries to deploy the ECOWAS program
ID cards, adding that, until now, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Ghana and Benin
were the countries that had deployed the identity cards.

For his part, Mr. Laud Afriffa, deputy deputy
Comptroller General of GIS Command and Operations in his presentation
commended the ECOWAS Commission and IOM for continuing their advocacy and
campaign to help key stakeholders understand the Protocol on Free Movement
people and property.

He said that it was important for the
stakeholders to understand the content of the protocol and to use it in
their day-to-day operations, ensuring its full and effective implementation for
facilitate economic operations within the community.

Mr. Afriffa stated that all the plea was well founded
on was the effective management of the residents especially by the safety
agents and how they handled people crossing from one Member State to the
other without being impediments but by acting as checks.

He said that the management of the residents in today's world
with the adoption of new security rules.
Government Governance Initiative.

What he said was important for the safety
Agencies need to work together to effectively manage borders.

He said that it was a major responsibility for
security agencies to strike a balance between providing security and
to ensure that those who have to move with goods can move without hindrance
but go quickly.

Deputy Comptroller General urged the community
Citizens must recognize that free movement does not mean that we should not say responsibility
that free is regulated and therefore those traveling across borders must
make sure that they travel with the appropriate travel documents, as indicated in the
Protocol of ECOWAS.

He urged all citizens of the community to respect
the rules governing each member country, they found themselves to make sure that
peace and security were not compromised.

GNA