Porous Borders Undermine Economy

Sierra Leone has porous borders with dozens of illegal and unmanned crossing points of which scores of illicit immigrants use to  flow into the country, thereby depriving the Immigration Department of much needed revenue and, consequently, undermining our economy.

The problem is being largely facilitated by the comparatively high cost of our passport and of our Emergency Travelling Certificate (ETC), which coerces many poor travelers to evade our immigration officials at the borders and enter or exit the country illegally. The ugly situation has been frustrating the efforts of immigration officials, particularly at the Jendema Customs in generating revenue for the state.

To alleviate this problem, government must first try to reduce the cost of our passport and of our ETC to make them affordable for almost every traveler; this can help broaden the revenue base of the Immigration Department and cut down on the number of illegal immigrants.

Also, government must try to recruit more immigration officers or border guards to man the unmanned and illegal crossing points and should try to provide more logistical support for the officers at the borders to equip them to be patrolling the borders on a regular basis, otherwise, this nation will continue to lose billions of Leones to illegal immigration.

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