News:
May 18, 2025
The Director of Free Movement of Persons and Migration at the ECOWAS Commission Mr. Albert Siaw-Boateng has called on member states of the West Africa sub-regional bloc to ensure that their operatives in the immigration and customs stop the extortion and harassment of citizens of the ECOWAS at the land borders.
According to him they are aware of the challenges citizens of members states face like harassment and extortion. “But like I do say, ECOWAS itself does not have ECOWAS police and immigration or customs; it is totally dependent on member states that their operatives do the right things. Curbing these negative acts by operatives, it has to be looked at by member states to ensure they are dealt with”.
In an interview at the end of the bloc’s three-day regional validation meeting of The ECOWAS labour migration strategy and action plan in Accra Ghana, he recounted that May 7, 2025, a team led by the Commission President Dr. Omar Alieu Touray visited the border between Benin and Nigeria just to observe some of these reports that have been brought to the attention of the commission.
“It was quite interesting to know that on the way; we made quite a few stops, spoke to traders and passengers as well as drivers and road users and some of these issues came up. And most of the complaints have to do with unauthorized border check points, which on the side of the Federal Republic of Nigeria a task force has been set up by President Bola A. Tinubu”.
On the check points, those not authorized between Lagos and Seme, when you get to the part of the Republic of Benin you notice that once you cross the border there are no check points until you get to Hilaconji, the Benin and Togo border, he stated.
He noted that when crossing himself, one of the operatives from the Benin side indicated to him that before he stamped his passport, he needed to pay him two thousand CFA, adding that they had to engage that operative to ensure that such acts to do not continue.
Again, “what happens to the majority of travelers who do not get such intervention, so it tells us that advocacy and sensitization, needs to be key among these officers and that is one of the drive of my directorate of migration as the ECOWAS office, for these officers and the ECOWAS citizens”
There is a yearly meeting that we do have for all heads of immigration of member states, where some of these issues are addressed but the whole thing is to look at the border crossing challenges that citizens face and find an appropriate way of addressing it; if possible at the highest level, that is the summit of the Authority of Heads of States and Government, he emphasised.
He disclosed that they are looking forward to organize the summit as part of the 50th anniversary celebration and one of the critical issues to be discussed among the Heads of States is challenges faced by community citizens when crossing land borders.
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com