The returnees have also been encouraged to take advantage of on-going opportunities being provided by the Government and make the best out of them. 

Ms Mavis Hawa Koomson, the Minister for Special Development Initiatives, who made the call at the launch of Maisha Ghana on Tuesday, said the government acknowledged that unemployment was a major factor that pushed young people to migrate to Europe and other countries and was, therefore, putting up measures to address the situation.

She said the Government was undertaking a number of development programmes, including the implementation of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) that would allocate the cedi equivalence of one million dollars annually to each of the 275 constituencies to be invested in priority development initiatives.

The IPEP initiative would involve the Government’s One District One Factory; One Village One Dam, small business development, agriculture infrastructure; Water for All; and Sanitation projects that would all become job avenues for the teeming youth.

“Through the implementation of these programmes substantial job opportunities would be created for the youth which will include Ghanaian returnees from abroad,” Ms Koomson said.  She said the Government would continue to build an enabling environment to support the private sector to create jobs, especially for the youth.

“We believe that if the youth are empowered, they will not be in a hurry to move out to seek greener pastures,” the Minister said.   She, therefore, commended the Founder and Executive Director of Maisha Ghana, Mrs Virginia Wangare Greiner, for establishing a branch of her NGO in Ghana, which is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, to help alleviate the sufferings of returnees. 

Mrs Greiner, a Kenyan who stays in Germany, said the Association, which had branches in Germany and Kenya, was established in 1996 to represent the concerns of the Diaspora and to promote educational opportunities designed to give employment to both the returnees and young people in programme countries.

She said the interventions would serve as a measure to deter most of the people from going outside their countries to look for non-existing opportunities.  Mrs Greiner said most of the African migrants, especially the women and the returnees, face numerous heart-breaking challenges in their endeavour to migrate to Europe and other countries in search of greener pastures.

 Most of them, however, were unable to tell their experiences to deter others from taking the same steps while others continued to hide in countries wanting to return home but without anyone to help them out, she said.

Mrs Greiner said Maisha Ghana would, therefore, train and support the entrepreneurship activities of trainees by providing seed money to them.  The Reverend Dr Garnet Parris, a Researcher at Maisha Germany, said the situation of the African migrants was so perturbing and dangerous that governments needed to make it a priority in supporting all efforts at making their stay comfortable.

He said most of the migrants faced molestation on the deserts as they sought to travel through unapproved routes, while others had their body organs removed and sold to some doctors and surgeons to save other rich people’s lives.  “Europe is now going more to the right and they have bad feeling about migrants. Some do not want to see migrants at all and some want to see only Christians. African governments need to protect their people from falling into bad situation,” Rev Parris said.

Ms Mary Laing-Moses, a Director and Secretary of Maisha Ghana, said activities of the Ghana branch would focus on four key pillars; Housing, Orientation, Reconciliation and Enterprises to benefit the returnees.