My questions for the Comptroller-General, Ghana Immigration Service
When I lived in London, and during all my travels in other parts of Europe as well as in the USA, never once did a state security officer, or anybody else for that matter, ask to see my Identity Card or document.
Even in countries or places where I was of a different skin colour, nobody, no police officer or soldier ever asked to see my ID.
Yet, on Thursday, September 29, 2022, I encountered that most troubling experience in my own country, in my birth region; and in the night. I was one of a number of passengers in a long-distance bus that a Ghana Immigration Service Officer (GIS) put through that disturbing experience for reasons I’m yet to understand.
It happened at about 8.30 p.m., on the Sunyani – Berekum road and we were in a VIP Accra – Dormaa-Ahenkro bus. When we got to a place that turned out to be the GIS checkpoint near Kato, a woman in uniform wielding a torch signalled with it to the driver to stop.
After he parked, the woman wearing a jacket with ‘Ghana Immigration Service’ emblazoned on it, climbed aboard from the middle door. Without any announcement or explanation offered, she started walking from seat to seat, asking passengers to show their identification document, either a “Ghana Card or Voter’s ID”!
Interestingly, the sole officer undertaking this exercise, had no recorder, notebook or clipboard; no paper or even an exercise book to write down our responses. And, as far as I could tell, she made no comment when passengers either said they didn’t have their ID with them or said they didn’t have one; she just moved on to the next person.
Was it a new regulation requiring passengers to show their IDs, I asked, and she responded in the affirmative, saying “this is a checkpoint”, as if that explained it. In response to my comment that I have been travelling on that route for years, but have never heard of that regulation, she responded “well, today, you have heard about it”, adding that it was an old, existing regulation.
The remaining passengers in the by then half-empty bus, were quite exhausted from the tiring journey, so it wasn’t amusing to be stopped at that time to be asked a baffling demand for proof of identity.
After about ten minutes, she got down and we continued our journey.
I have searched in vain at the GIS website for any hint of the existing regulation cited by the officer, or any of the Service’s stated objectives that explains why an Immigration officer would find it necessary to stop a bus that was nowhere near a border to ask passengers for their IDs.
But I struck a dead end. No such information or explanation is on that site, even though she had insisted that it’s an old regulation.
The nearest stipulation I came across at that site, under BORDER PATROL OPERATIONS says: Some of the major activities include maintaining traffic checkpoints along highway leading from border areas, conducting snap check and anti-smuggling operations.
Also, under OBJECTIVES OF THE SERVICE:
a) To ensure the effective administration and management of migration in the country; and
“b) Contribute to national security.
Under FUNCTIONS OF THE SERVICE, the clauses include:
1. The Service shall:
a) Subject to existing laws, examine travel document of persons entering or leaving the country through the borders;
b) Ensure the application and enforcement of laws relating to the immigration and employment of non-Ghanaians in the country;
d) Manage and patrol the borders of the country;
e) Through the Comptroller-General or the dully authorized representative of the Comptroller-General issue visas for entry into the country and permits for residence or work in the country; and
f) perform any other functions as required by law.
I’ve been wondering, how the above relate to our experience at that Kato checkpoint.
Therefore, I have some questions for the GIS, particularly Mr Kwame Asuah Takyi, Comptroller- General, starting with: if indeed that regulation the officer referred to exists, does it apply only in the Bono Region, or only at that checkpoint?
And perhaps the GIS would kindly explain, especially to people in that part of the Bono Region, why they have to carry their IDs with them when travelling between towns WITHIN Ghana.
My other questions are:
1. If it’s an existing regulation that travellers are required to carry an ID, ready to show at GIS checkpoints, what is the purpose?
2. Has the GIS taken the trouble to inform the public about this requirement?
3. For example, are there notices pasted at transport terminals?
4. Also, is this a helpful regulation for a country seeking to boost its tourism, asking travellers within Ghana to show proof of identity to the GIS?
Moreover, how will the paperless exercise of that GIS officer benefit Ghana’s travel or transportation statistics? At least at the Kotoka International Airport when travellers are given a form to complete, evidently the information will go into the country’s records.
Or, could it be that the officer feeling bored, decided to relieve her boredom at the expense of travel-weary, hapless passengers, because she had the protection of a uniform?
Interestingly, the motto of the GIS is “Friendship with Vigilance”. Vigilance, yes, we can all appreciate the need for vigilance. But how was that purpose served by the curious behaviour of that officer on the Kato-Berekum road?
To me it seemed pretty much like one more example of state security officers using the protection of a state uniform to harass civilians, because they believe that they have the power to do that.
Anyhow, Mr Takyi, is that the case? Did that officer have the right to demand IDs at that place, notably without any explanation and no indication that she was recording the information for official purposes?
We await your responses, please, GIS Comptroller-General.