Abstract:
There were four objectives that underlay the conduct of this study. These were to:
examine how much knowledge personnel of the immigration service have of human
rights: explore the various sources where the personnel received their human right
knowledge from: ascertain the level of human rights understanding immigration
personnel have when it comes to practical situations in their operations: and to
analyze the correlation that exist between their knowledge and practical understanding
of human rights. Investigating the above objectives became very necessary because
though immigration personnel are expected to respect and protect people’s rights in
their duties, it was however not known whether they have the requisite knowledge and
understanding of human rights. The study was conducted as a survey using mixed
methods. Data was collected from 120 respondents who were all immigration
personnel using questionnaire as the only tool. Respondents were sampled using
stratified random and convenient sampling methods. The data collection covered 12
border stations all along the Ghana-Togo boundary. Both quantitative and qualitative
data were analyzed using SPSS version 16.0 and Microsoft Word. After all the
analyses, the findings made by the study were that a large majority of the respondents
did not have accurate knowledge of fundamental human rights. It was also found that
the knowledge they had of human rights were received from different sources other
than G.I.S. trainings. There was also the finding that respondents’ positions on various
University of Education,Winneba http://ir.uew.edu.gh
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practical scenarios were based on their personal attributes and other considerations,
and not on human rights tenets. In the end, it was concluded that the respondents had
inadequate knowledge of the concepts and principles of fundamental human rights as
a result of lack of proper training in Human Rights Education (HRE). There was also
the conclusion that the respondents generally lacked a deeper practical understanding
of human rights as a result of their inability to readily recognize issues of human
rights in their daily operations. Meanwhile, personnel of the immigration service
perform very critical functions along Ghana’s borders where they come up against
smugglers, criminals, and regular travelers. And the findings made by this study about
their inadequate knowledge and understanding of human rights, has the potential of
impairing their good judgment and thereby endangering people’s fundamental human
rights. It is therefore imperative that the recommendations made in this study are
accorded the needed considerations.
