Heed call to flush out foreign criminals!
The Deputy Comptroller of Immigration (DCGI) in-charge of command post and operations, Laud Kwesi Affrifah, has called on Immigration Officers to focus on fighting migrant crime and help flush out foreign criminals from the country.
According to him, migrant crime in the country was on the ascendency, and lamented that, Ghana was on the verge of becoming haven for foreign criminals.
The statement by Mr Affrifah may appear to be a normal invitation to Immigration officials to do their normal work. However, put against what is currently going on in the country, one cannot take the statement right.
The country is faced with increasing number of crimes being committed by foreigners with impunity. The recent spate of crimes such as kidnapping, 419, marriage scams, internet fraud, human trafficking, arms smuggling are but a few crimes that have been imported into the country.
Many of the criminals arrested in connection with these crimes are mostly foreigners who have taken advantage of the peace in the country to commit those crimes.
It is, therefore, important for all Ghanaians to heed to the call to flush out foreign criminals before the criminal activities overwhelm us.
Already, the security apparatus are battling to contain the increased crime rate and it would be dangerous to allow the country to become a haven for foreign criminals.
Although the Ghanaian Times is not relying on any data to conclude that there is increase in crime, we do know that the type of crimes being perpetuated today are more sophisticated and have become a nightmare for the police.
Crimes such as contract killings and murders have become difficult to tackle at a time when arrest of murderers to face the law has also become a challenge.
Few of such unresolved murders come to mind but our concern is how the security apparatus would be able to contain the crime wave in the country in the short term.
We believe that everyone has a role to play in minimising crime by providing information about suspicious activities of foreigners in their communities to the police.
We acknowledge that the police has in recent times carried out swoops on suspected criminals in different parts of the country and arrested a number of people who were to undergo screening.
While parting the police on the back for the initiative, we urge them to undertake such exercises regularly in order to flush out criminals from their hide-outs.
The efforts to flush out all criminals would not succeed if citizens do not support the security with the necessary information.
We, therefore appeal to all patriotic Ghanaians to heed the call and support the security agencies to rid the country of foreign criminals.