Immigration Chief debunks deportation claims in Germany
Following a week long verification process to identify Sierra Leoneans living in Germany, the Chief Immigration Officer (CIO), Mr Alpha Kholifa Koroma has denied reports claiming that the process was to deport Sierra Leoneans in Germany.
“It is not the intention of the Immigration department to come here and join forces to deport Sierra Leoneans,” he stated.
The CIO described the reports as an “indictment on Immigration Personnel that are particularly coming to Europe for the said exercise.” He said the essence of such exercise was based on the agreement between the Sierra Leone Immigration and the German Federal Police. According to him, it is to make certain that people who are claiming to be Sierra Leoneans in Germany go through a verification process, while those who are true citizens of the country maintain their status.
Mr. Koroma said, accepting non Sierra Leoneans in the country could lead to serious problems noting that, it is incumbent upon them as Immigration experts to come and identify their nationals, thus issuing Emergency Travel Certificates to them. He believed that such exercise would further assist Sierra Leoneans in Germany to acquire a better status.
Mr Kholifa Koroma examining an interview report
Asked whether measures have been put in place to stop the illegal issuance of the country’s national passports to foreigners, the CIO said much has been done in that direction.
Since his assumption of duty, he went on, illegal issuance of passports to foreign nationals has not been rampant. He attributed it to the appropriate mechanisms that he has put in place three years ago to avert the anomaly.
“Our passports have been in the hands of different nationalities particularly in Europe. But that happened between 2000 and 2007. Because all passports that I have confiscated in Europe are within that time frame,” he disclosed.
Mr. Koroma emphasised the strong working relationship that exists between his department and Sierra Leone diplomatic missions abroad. This he said, are efforts to thwart the illegal issuance of the country’s passports to non-citizens in the diaspora.
It could be recalled that, Sierra Leone’s national passports are reportedly in the hands of non-citizens across Europe. Most of them claimed to come from Sierra Leone, as a result of the civil war that broke out in the country in 1991.
Many Sierra Leoneans had to flee out of the country to seek sanctuary. The country has since return to normalcy with democratic governance since the war ended in 2002.
Umaru S. Jah, Information Attaché, Sierra Leone Embassy, Germany
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Haji Thonkla
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I echoed the Immigration Chief concern. There are a lot of foreign nationals ,like Nigerians,Ghanians,Gambians,Guineans etc abusing our national pride,our passport.
23rd October 2011This issue is a fundamental matter that the President should tackle head on.
When these guys are arrested in foreign lands the Authorities see’s them as true Sierra Leoneans via identification of our passport.
But in real terms, they are from generic African states. An enormous amount of these scumbags are professional criminals and unpatriotic Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are colluding with them to obtain our passport.
The Immigration Chief has to engage Sierra Leone communities in the diaspora to help fight this nightmare.
We are decent people,thus we should not allow other foreign nationals to stain or destory our ethos.