Ghana 
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Overview Migration ActivitiesDonors
IOM has been active in Ghana since 1987 and has contributed to the Government of Ghana’s efforts to manage migration effectively through a wide variety of projects and programmes. IOM Accra started its programmes by supporting the institutional capacity-building needs within the country through Phase Two of the Return of Qualified African Nationals (RQAN II) programme (1988-92). This programme facilitated the return of highly qualified African nationals including Ghanaians residing in the diaspora to contribute to the socio-economic development of Ghana by returning home to take up key positions in priority sectors including health, education, economics, finance, public service, and political administration. Since then, the office has grown to address a variety of migration management needs. During the past 10 years, IOM Accra has been involved in migrant resettlement (refugees) and the movement of various migrants for family reunification and other opportunities to various countries throughout the world. Other IOM Accra activities include migration policy development, labour migration, migration and development, combating human-trafficking, assisted voluntary returns, border management, information campaigns on the risks and realities of migration, and humanitarian and emergency response Migrant Support (Resettlement, Pre-departure Orientation, Movements, Pre-Consular Services) The United States Refugee Resettlement Programme (USRP), the Canadian Resettlement Programme and the Australian Resettlement Programme facilitate the processing of refugee resettlement cases from West and Central Africa, referred by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and accepted by major resettlement countries, such as Australia, Canada, United States and some European countries. IOM Ghana also assists in the resettlement of refugees to other European countries on a smaller scale. Assistance includes flight booking reservations, travel assistance including local transportation, medical assessments to ascertain fitness to travel, airport departure and transit assistance, escorts if required, and document verification. The Australian Cultural Orientation (AUSCO) and the Canadian Cultural Orientation Programmes complement the Australian and Canadian Resettlement Programmes. Pre-departure cultural orientation helps to prepare refugees accepted for resettlement by providing them with relevant information about their host countries. Migrant orientation focuses on empowering refugees and enhancing their abilities to become self-sufficient, and assists to meet their immediate socio-cultural needs on arrival and better integrate into their respective new societies. Since 2006, IOM Ghana has provided operational support to almost 45,000 migrants within the West Africa region. IOM Ghana also provides movement support for Ghanaian nationals who are issued with United States and Canada Immigrant Visas and recently established a partnership with Syracuse University Abroad (SUA) to provide study abroad opportunities to university students in Ghana. Main Projects
Donors
IOM Accra's Migration Health Department (MHD) continues to implement migration health-related programmes in West and Central Africa on behalf of governments. Health services are provided to migrants supported under the main refugee resettlement programmes – United States Refugee Programme (USRP), the Canadian and Australian Resettlement Programmes, and to a lesser extent to refugee resettlement and family reunification to Europe. In addition, there are a variety of self-payer and government-sponsored health services required, which include migration health assessments, pre-departure medical screening to establish fitness to travel and vaccinations. The aim of migration health assessments is to reduce and better manage the public health impact of population mobility on receiving countries, facilitate integration of migrants through detection and cost-effective management of health conditions and well as to provide information on medical condition of migrants. To ensure safe and dignified travel, IOM allocates a doctor or a nurse escort to an individual or group of travelers to provide medical and logistics support during the journey, as and when required. IOM Accra also implements DNA testing to establish affidavit of relationship for family reunification cases traveling to Italy, Canada, UK and USA. In the past five years, IOM has provided health support to over 40,000 individuals. IOM Accra also assists the Government of the United Kingdom with a tuberculosis control screening programme (UKTB Detection Programme) for migrants who are eligible to travel to the UK under qualifying visas. The objective of the programme is to address public health needs on the spread of infectious tuberculosis in the United Kingdom. An average of 4,300 individuals from Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire participate annually in the UKTB programme. IOM is also conducting a research project on HIV vulnerability among at risk population in Ghana. This project is funded by the UNAIDS’s Program Acceleration Fund The aim of the study is to investigate HIV and AIDS risk factors among women and girls in and around selected port areas and along transport corridors. Projects with Migration Health Support
The Migration for Development in Africa (MIDA) Ghana Health project enables Ghanaian and African health professionals residing in the Netherlands or other European countries to contribute to the health sector of Ghana by returning for up to three months to provide health services including clinical and surgical procedures in various hospitals and clinics. Assignments are demand-driven and based on identified needs within health institutions in Ghana. Additionally, health professionals in Ghana have the opportunity to undertake internships in university hospitals or other health institutions in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. Over the past five years, Ghanaian health professionals in the diaspora have contributed their expertise in hospitals, clinics, health centres, and health training institutions in various ways, with a focus on capacity-building through skills transfer to working colleagues. The project ensures an active and essential role for the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Health and various health training institutions located throughout Ghana. It also seeks to foster sustainable cooperation and synergies between diaspora networks in the Netherlands, United Kingdom and Germany with links to health institutions in Ghana. The current phase of the MIDA Ghana III Health Project, which spans from April 2008 until the end of March 2012, links with the five-year Human Resources Policies and Strategies (HRPS) for Ghana’s health sector from 2007 to 2011 as defined by the Ministry of Health of Ghana. The principal donor of the project is the Netherlands Embassy in Accra, Ghana. Within the MIDA health project, over 40 health institutions and 23,000 beneficiaries (health professionals, students, and patients) in Ghana have benefited from the contribution from Ghanians residing in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Germany. Areas of expertise contributed include orthopaedic surgery, mental health, urology, public health and health education, institutional management, and information communication technology (ICT). Additionally, another project which focuses on the Ghanaian diaspora in Italy has provided support to the agriculture sector in Ghana through technical and financial support to set up small and medium scale enterprises. Main Project
Donors
Counter-Trafficking. The Assisted Voluntary Rescue, Rehabilitation, Return, and Reintegration of Ghanaian Children Victims of Trafficking for Labour Exploitation in Fishing Communities in Ghana Project began in October 2002 with the generous support of the US State Department – Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM). Apart from PRM, the project has also benefited immensely from private donors, including individuals, school and community groups, and religious organizations Through the project, 731 children trafficked for labour exploitation along the Volta Lake have been rescued, while 711 have been rehabilitated and reintegrated. In addition, 48,426 community members in 129 communities have been sensitized on issues pertaining to child trafficking and over 400 government officials, judicial authorities, and social workers have received training to enhance their capacities. Moreover, 468 parents/guardians and 550 fishermen have benefited from micro-credit assistance. All these accomplishments contribute to reducing the incidence of human trafficking in Ghana. The Sponsorship of 200 Trafficked Children in Ghana Project was introduced in 2006. This project aims to provide additional reintegration assistance to rescued trafficked children and micro-credit assistance to their parents/guardians through sponsorship packages. Interested persons who would like to sponsor rescued children can do so with a minimum of US$ 25 a month for a minimum of one year (or US$ 4,500 to rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate one child for 2 ½ years). The sponsorship funds are used to provide the children with the basic needs of food, education, clothing, and healthcare. One hundred forty-two children are currently benefiting from this project. Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration. IOM's Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) Programme aims at the orderly, humane and cost-effective return and reintegration of migrants who are unable or unwilling to remain in host countries and wish to return voluntarily to Ghana. Pre-departure, transportation, and post-arrival assistance are provided to unsuccessful Ghanaian asylum seekers, migrants in an irregular situation, migrants stranded in transit, stranded students, and other persons under similar circumstances. Pre-departure assistance typically provides information to ensure migrants make an informed decision about their return to Ghana. International flights, local transportation and support towards reintegration are usually provided. Within Ghana a variety of reintegration services are provided and may include post-arrival assistance, information and counseling, as well as assistance to establish a small businesses, engage in education or vocational training/skills enhancement, and job placement. Other reintegration assistance provided may include medical assistance and temporary accommodation. Reintegration assistance is provided in a holistic manner which is tailored to the specific needs of the migrant. Furthermore, community development initiatives are also implemented in order to address the root causes of irregular migration. The main goal of AVRR is to enable returnees to regain a source of sustainable livelihood and thereby discourage any further irregular migration from Ghana. It is also an opportunity to demonstrate to potential irregular migrants of the opportunities that exist in the communities of origin, thus curtailing irregular migration. The programme also provides a human rights based approach to the protection of migrants vis-à-vis forced removals or deportation. The majority of migrants to Ghana return from Belgium, Libya, and the United Kingdom. However, returns have also taken place from the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Latvia, Morocco, Malta, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Since 2006, IOM Ghana has provided return and reintegration assistance to an estimated 2,000 Ghanaians. Main Projects
Labour Migration. The European Commission– and Italian Government–funded AENEAS 2006 Labour Migration Project for West Africa (LAMIWA) specifically aims to establish proper mechanisms for migration management through the national assessment of labour migration policies, capacity-building activities, information campaigns on risks of irregular migration, and promoting inter-state dialogue and cooperation amongst African countries. To date, this ongoing project has achieved the following:
In addition to these activities, IOM missions in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and Libya have strengthened the capacity of the governments in these countries to manage labour migration by providing them with IT and office equipment and holding labour migration policy development training workshops. IOM has also held a follow-up training workshop on migration policy development to equip relevant government officials from Ghana and Nigeria with the tools necessary to develop such policies. Given that IOM and this project seek to ensure that labour migrants travel through legal avenues, capacity-building and training as part of the key activities have been provided between September 2009 and February 2010. It took the form of four training workshops and study tours to Italy, Guatemala, Colombia, for a total of 30 selected government officials from the Ghanaian Ministries of the Interior and Employment and Social Welfare as well as the Labour Department and the Ghana Immigration Service and some Nigerian, Senegalese, and Libyan government officials in order to learn lessons and good practices from these countries’ experiences in the area of circular migration. The goal of these capacity-building initiatives is to establish a mechanism for the identification, registration, and selection of candidate Ghanaian workers to match job opportunities between Ghana and Italy, building on the annual entry quota for Ghanaian workers allocated by the Italian Government since 2006. A Labour Migration Unit has recently been established at the Labour Department, which houses the database that has been set up for this purpose. Through these activities, the foundation has been laid for the establishment of a job-matching scheme between Ghana and Italy as well as circular migration schemes involving other EU Member States and Libya as some of the principal countries of destination for Ghanaian migrants. IOM Ghana, in collaboration with IOM Italy, is currently in the process of developing a pilot circular migration scheme in the agricultural sector between Ghana and Italy and a regional conference on labour migration, with particular emphasis on circular migration, will be convened in Ghana at the end of July 2011. IOM Ghana has also been contributing to the implementation of an EC- and IOM 1035 Facility-funded programme concerning the establishment or enhancement of labour market information systems in six countries. The overall objectives of the project are to support the inclusion and proper management of labour migration information in LMISs, to contribute to policy-making with a view to fostering greater intra-regional labour mobility and international dialogue and cooperation, and to enhance the positive effect of migration on the economic development of the six countries. A country background study for Ghana has been undertaken to analyse and assess the labour migration information sub-system in Ghana in order to make proposals to develop and integrate it into an eventual national labour market information system, taking into account the specific country needs and context. This background study has provided important information for a comparative study involving the six targeted countries (Tunisia, Senegal, Ghana, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua), which will allow them to strengthen their respective data collection systems by sharing good practices and lessons learned in other countries, such as whether and how labour migration information is assessed and passed on to the labour market information systems. Main Project
Emergency Response and Post-conflict Donors
IOM Accra provides support to the Government of Ghana through the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to address the humanitarian and emergency needs of those affected by natural and man-made disasters – for example, the Ivory Coast crisis, which resulted in large-scale out-migration into Ghana of Third Country Nationals (TCNs), refugees/asylum seekers, and returning Ghanaians; the Libya crisis, which resulted in the evacuation of almost 18,000 Ghanaians who returned to Ghana over a two-month period; and natural disasters such as floods (2010), in which IOM provided non-food relief items to 4,000 households and assessment support to NADMO. IOM works closely with the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS), NADMO, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, local authorities, UN agencies, NGOs, and other stakeholders. Main Project
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IOM Ghana
Mailing address:
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
P.O. Box 5222
Accra North
Ghana
Visiting address:
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
Hse. 10, Plot 48
Osu Badu Road/Broadway
Airport West
Accra
Ghana
| Tel: | +233.030 701 22 10 |
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+233.302 182 32 60
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| Fax: | +233.302 182 32 61 |
| Mobile: | +233.2 443 15 12 9 |
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+233.2 443 15 14 3 |
