By: Daniel Garteh

The Commander of the Liberia Immigration Services in Nimba says that the number of Burkinabe crossings entering Liberia could cause a feature security threat if care is not taken now.

He told Nimba TV that some of the feature threats could be an internal conflict for land, ritualistic activities, and cross-border violence because those Burkinabe could one day cross over to Ivory Coast and cause some problems where the Ivorian might consider them to be Liberians because they came from the Liberian side of the border.

Another thing he spoke about was that LRRRC has been carrying on registration and giving the Burkinabe refugee status whereas there is no civil unrest ongoing in Burkina Faso.

The LIS County Commander said the action of LRRRC has given rise to the influx of Burkinabe to cross the border illegally without obtaining any legal documents.

He said recently, they saw about 42 of them crossing, and the LIS officers assigned at the border in the Karblee belt were unable to stop them because there were only two LIS officers who were unable to stop the burkinabes.

Commander Meahpaine complained of challenges they are faced with at various crossing points in Nimba, ranging from manpower shortages to lack of shelter, electricity, and mobility.

For the issue of manpower, he explained that the recent retirement exercise carried out affected them where about 42 officers were retired, and they are yet to be replaced, making some of the border points to be vulnerable.

He asserted that his office has been documenting and reporting given to the County Anthoney and the county superintendent and also to their regional Commander.

Speaking further, Meahpaine mentioned that there is a need for a policy reform in the LIS sector policy, taking into consideration the Local Government Act.

He indicated that when the local government act takes full swing, tasks raised in the county will play a significant role in augmenting their work.

Recently, the County LIS county commander was among 54 officers from across 9 countries that attended a similar in China on Task Administration and Cross Border Security.