Based on statistics by Migration Watch on illegal migration in Ghana, Bono and Ahafo Regions contribute to 80% of all illegal migration in Ghana with a lot of these migrants being women.
At a one-day symposium on ILO-189 convention, Finance and Administrative Director of Migrant Watch, Samuel Hackman, said the situation is worrisome.
As a result, stakeholders have come together to solve the problem of illegal migration with a sensitisation programme at Drobo, in the Jaman South municipality.
“Migration Watch has already started a sensitisation programme in Drobo to educate residents on illegal migration and it’s consequences on the individual.”
The symposium called together key stakeholders in the migration and domestic work sectors to deliberate on responsibilities of recruiting agencies.
Nicholas Agyekum, the CEO of IDREAM consult, a certified recruiting agency used the symposium to plead with government to lift the ban on domestic work to the Gulf countries.
He believes that the ban has given illegal agencies to operate in the black market of recruitment. Public Affairs Director of Migrant Watch, Peter Mensah, also believes that lifting the ban will help curb the issues of illegalities.
“The ban on domestic work to the gulf state has caused illegal recruitment agents to operate in the dark. They recruit innocent Ghanaians to the Gulf state and leave them there to suffer their own fate. If government lifts this ban, we will be able to fish out unlicensed recruitment agencies’ to curb the menace.”
This is a part of the Open Society Foundation funded programme of reintegration for domestic migrant workers from the Middle East and the Gulf Regions, pre and post the Covid-19 pandemic.
The aim is to bridge the identified gaps in compliance with Global compact for migration as signed in Morocco and further to complement relevant SDGs having bearing on migration.