BO-WATERSIDE, August 3 (LINA) – Immigration Commissioner and Deputy Attorney General, Lemuel Reeves, has said the Government of Liberia is approaching the issue of Ebola “as a war.”
He made the declaration at the Bo Waterside border post when he led a team from the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (BIN) on an inspection tour of the border in keeping with the mandate of the National Task Force on Ebola chaired by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
According to Commissioner Reeves, the inspection is intended to assess the needs of his men in order to provide the support required to enable them effectively perform their duties.
Reeves said his team will visit all border points that are open as well as those that were closed by the President to ensure that they are not illegally used.
He disclosed that the Immigration Bureau has designed a strategy aimed at protecting counties that have not been affected by the deadly virus.
“Our men are working alongside health care workers to ensure that people entering and leaving the country through Bo Waterside and other border points are properly screened,” the BIN official asserted.
Commissioner Reeves, who provided some protective gears such as gloves and face masks to Immigration officers and joint security teams at Klay in Bomi County and Bo Waterside in Grand Cape Mount County, said the gesture was the BIN’s way of assisting in the fight against Ebola, while awaiting the Government to step in with adequate logistics support.
He said the BIN needs vehicles and motorbikes to enable its men assigned at the various border points to carry out routine patrols to avoid people sneaking in and out of the country, adding, “our borders are long and porous”.
Commissioner Reeves also named thermometers as well as high quality protective gears as among the needs of BIN security officers and the joint security teams at every border to effectively fight the dreaded virus.
He thanked the BIN and joint security teams at the borders and urged them to be committed to their jobs and the nation in these times of crisis.
By Prince Nagbe
LINA PSN/TSS/PTK