International Organisation for Migration supports migrant workers with farming inputs

The Ghana Mission of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Friday presented farming equipment to 18 Ghanaian migrant workers who were sent to Italy to engage in agricultural activities for three months.

The equipment included water-spraying machines, fertilizing spraying machines, pick-axes, shovels, roofing sheets, wheel-barrows and  water hoes.

The project, which was under the IOM’s Labour Migration Project for West Africa (LAMIWA), aimed at promoting migration and preventing further irregular migration. It was sponsored by the European Union and Italian Government.

Speaking at the presentation, Ms Dyane Epstein, Chief of Missions, IOM Ghana said the objective of the presentation was to equip the migrant workers to upgrade their agricultural activities from subsistence basis to commercial agribusinesses, which would boost their productivity level in their communities and the country at large.

Ms Epstein commended the Government for its support towards the implementation of the project.

She said the project, which was on pilot basis, would be expanded in collaboration with the Government and other stakeholders.

Mr Antwi Boasiako-Sekyere, Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, commended the migrant workers for being good ambassadors and returning to practice in the country.

“Any bad representation would have had a terrible consequence on the image of the country as a whole,” he said.

He urged people who wanted to travel abroad to avoid using middlemen as they would either provide them with fake traveling documents or abscond with their money.

Mr Boasiako-Sekyere bemoaned instances where many Ghanaians had suffered bad fate in other countries because they were illegal immigrants.

Madam Elizabeth Hagan, Chief Labour Officer, Labour Department, lauded IOM for the project as it had exposed the beneficiaries to good Italian farming practices.

She appealed to them to make good use of the equipment for the benefit of their communities and the nation as a whole.

Mr Kojo Wilmot, Project Manager, IOM Ghana, pledged IOM’s commitment towards working to stop or minimise illegal migration among Ghanaians.

He said the beneficiaries from the 10 Regions were involved in the rearing of pigs, fish farming, cocoa farming and vegetable farming.

Source: GNA

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