Border Communities And Border Security In Ghana

This study explores the role of border communities in border security in Ghana through a case study of the eastern border town of Aflao. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and focus group discussions. The study aims to unearth how border communities influence the bordering process and how that influences border security in Ghana. Border residents are deeply rooted in the border space. This gives them power to influence many aspects of the bordering process. They have used this power of placement to control the many unapproved entry routes and display an ambivalent towards the concept of sovereignty. On one hand,they contest the monopoly of the state to determine territory access by operating the illegal entries and aiding people to evade the border agencies. On the other hand, they reaffirm sovereignty by employing the same concept to extract revenue from those seeking to cross at the blind side of the security. The study found that residents of border communities have been conduits of crimes such as goods smuggling, armed robbery, human smuggling and human trafficking. Through their involvement in crimes such as goods smuggling and human smuggling, they invariably become agents for other transnational crimes including drug trafficking, and arms smuggling, although sometimes unawares. History, poverty, and the quest for livelihoods have provided the context within which smuggling of both goods and human have been legitimized against official position of the state.Although their deep placement and power within the border space have been acknowledged by border agencies, there is little effort to integrate them into the bordering process. Efforts at forging close relationship between the community and border officials have been too focused on local chiefs and opinion leaders. In the process, many of the community residents see the process of bordering or the duty to secure the border as the duty of a remote central government represented by border agencies rather than a collective effort. Together with perceptions of corruption among border agencies, the relationship between the residents and the border agencies is sore. Due to this, border residents have acted in ways that compromise the security at the border. The study suggests the adoption of a national border management policy that will help integrate border residents into the bordering process,differential tariff regime, the provision of basic social amenities to border residents, and extensive public education. The study also argued the case for adoption of an emancipatory border security theory, which will make the individual and communities the focus of border security. This framework will expose the many contradictions inherent in current approaches to border security and open avenues for emancipatory possibilities.