Monrovia – It’s almost impossible to curtail the influx of small arms through Liberia’s porous border as the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) now depends mostly on citizens to guard entry points.
“I don’t have statistics but I just know that people do smuggle these small single barrel pistols across the border; but you know there is a lot of porous border where in people can just smuggle through, that’s why we do work with the community and other agencies” – BIN Commissioner Lemuel Reeves.
The Commissioner of Bureau of Immigration Naturalization Lemuel Reeves told FrontPageAfrica on Tuesday that his entity, which has the primary task of manning the country’s entry points, depends mostly on community members to help secure the borders.
Liberia has 176 borders out of which only 46 are being protected by officers of the BIN.
Commissioner Reeves said security was not only the government’s responsibility but also “The citizens must be a part of the setup”.
He called for Liberians to be patriotic in helping the BIN protect the country’s porous borders from illegal immigrants and smugglers.
As Liberia draws closer to the 2017 General election, the BIN commissioner said several measures have been put in place in targeting the excessive flow of foreigners during the election period.
Said Reeves: “We have put measures into place, we have trained our officers because many at times many people in the rural areas have no birth records, especially in communities or villages, but we rely on the people, as you may know the tribes along the borders are related and similar, they are inter-marriages.”
Minimum borders guarded
During a press briefing at the Ministry of Information in 2014, Commissioner Reeves boasted of increasing the number of immigration officers at entry point by 15 on an annual basis. However, this is yet to be materialized.
“We have a total of 176 borders. Last year only 36 were fully operational, and we added an additional nine to increase it to 45.”
“We are making sure we add 15 every year so the number will be gradually increased by 2017,” he said during the press conference in 2014.
But in an exclusive interview with FPA Commissioner Reeves said: “We have land border that is about 1500 kilometers and the sea borders too, what we have noticed is 176 recognized towns along the land border, these are all potential crossing points we have increased the number now from 36 to 46.”
The latest revelation by the commissioner has only the difference of one additional officer which runs contrary to what he said.
“We are present at 46 out of 176; we have a border patrol unit who patrols the ones that are not guarded,” he emphasized.
“We are not guarding all borders; we also work with the local community through community engagement.
For the community collaboration, we are about to launch a strategic plan; we found that working with the local people has been quite effective, and we applaud them for the service to the BIN,” Reeves asserted.
Proliferation of small arms
The head of Liberia’s immigration fell short of providing statistics on the infiltration of arms in the country, but admitted that arms were being smuggled into the country.
“I don’t have statistics but I just know that people do smuggle these small single barrel pistols across the border; but you know there is a lot of porous border where in people can just smuggle through, that’s why we do work with the community and other agencies,” he said.
Commissioner Reeves: “We have intercepted several consignments and turned it over to the Liberia National Police, everywhere else in the world, nobody can tell you that security is 100 percent or else they won’t be having terrorist attacks in France, Brussels, United States America and other places.
“All we can do is to be vigilant to minimize it or serve a deterrent where people will not want to get involved in smuggling small arms, anywhere we find them we shall deal with them in keeping with law.”
The BIN commissioner said, in 2017 there will be collaboration between the voter’s registration staff and rural BIN officers will help verification citizenship.
West Africa is becoming prone to terrorist attacks with recent attacks in neighboring Ivory Coast and also in Nigeria and Cameroon.
In 2005, the United Nation Mission in Liberia expressed concern over the proliferation of small arms amidst the dawning of terrorist attacks in the region.
It has been established by the UN that most of the small arms and light weapons entering Liberia are from Ivory Coast and Guinea.
These two countries share various porous borders with Liberia.
Influx of ECOWAS members
The second paragraph of the Article 2 of the Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States calls on member-states to ensure, by stages, the abolition of the obstacles to free movement of persons, services and capital.
In Liberia there have been reports of influx of foreigners mostly from the West African region.
Most of these foreigners do not come with legal travel documents.
The Commissioner of BIN said meetings were been set up with embassies of ECOWAS members to ensure that they help regulate the documentation of their citizens in Liberia.
“We vet you and see if you have the right document to be a citizen in Liberia.
The vetting process is effective and we work with other agencies to help us with information.
Majority of the people who come to Liberia are ECOWAS citizens. All you have to do is be compliant with national laws,” Commissioner Reeves said.
He added that the BIN was working with partners to view the Alien and Nationality Laws.
“The law was last amended in 1974, there are current provisions that contravene the Constitution, so we have to look at that and make those laws more contemporary.”