The Minister for the Interior, Mohammed-Mubarak Muntaka, has revealed that government has identified 102 unapproved border routes in the Volta Region, raising concerns over Ghana’s porous borders and the potential use of illegal crossings for crimes such as drug trafficking.
Appearing before Parliament’s Assurances Committee on Tuesday, July 7, the Minister said the discovery underscores the scale of the challenge confronting security agencies in protecting the country’s borders.
According to him, Ghana currently has 48 officially approved border crossing points, but numerous illegal routes continue to pose significant security risks.
“We have 48 legitimate crossing points into our country. But the illegitimate ones, because of the time, to make sure that we secure our borders… we were shocked to realise that the last time I was in the Volta Region alone, we’ve identified 102 unapproved routes,” Mr Muntaka said.
He noted that the problem is not limited to the Volta Region, explaining that several other border regions, including the Upper East, Upper West, Bono and Western regions, also have numerous unauthorised crossing points that require increased surveillance.
The Minister warned that failure to secure these routes could make Ghana an attractive transit point for international criminal networks involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities.
“If we don’t focus on trying to secure even these unapproved routes, what is going to simply happen is that we’ll become a transit point. They can use us as a transit point,” he cautioned.
Mr Muntaka said criminal groups could easily avoid the country’s official entry points by exploiting the illegal routes to smuggle narcotics and other prohibited items into Ghana.
To strengthen border security, he disclosed that security agencies have established strategic inland checkpoints to complement patrols along the country’s frontiers.
According to him, Ghana currently operates about 63 inland security checkpoints to support intelligence gathering and intercept suspicious movements.
“As we speak, we have about 63 inland checkpoints,” he said.
While acknowledging public concerns over the number of checkpoints, the Interior Minister maintained that they remain an important component of the country’s national security architecture.
He, however, urged security personnel to conduct their duties professionally and minimise inconvenience to travellers by relying more on intelligence-led operations.
Mr Muntaka also appealed to the public to support border security efforts by volunteering credible information to the security agencies to help combat transnational crime and safeguard the country’s borders.
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