Honorable Commissioner General of Liberia Immigration Service

Honorable Chief Immigration Officer of Sierra Leone 

Government Officials

Officials and staff of the Liberia Immigration Service (LIS)

Members of the Fourth Estate

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

Today marks a significant milestone in your careers as immigration service personnel. You have completed a two-week intensive training program, equipping you with the knowledge, skills, and expertise necessary to excel in your roles. Let me highlight the importance of this specialized in-service training as a commitment by the government in implementing immigration reforms that started in 2016. I commend each of you for your hard work, dedication, and commitment to serving your country and its people. Your profession requires empathy, understanding, and a strong sense of justice – qualities that you have demonstrated throughout this training. 

I understand that your learning experience covered a wide breadth of topics from the key concepts like gender and human rights, migration, trafficking of persons, fraudulent documents detection; Border Management and operations; ECOWAS Protocol on free movement of persons and goods; International organization and Diplomatic Immunities; Professional Ethics / Code of Conduct, just to mentions a few. I am happy to note that ss part of the Rule of Law Joint Programme since 2017 we have trained over 1,178 officers and successfully conducted placement exams for 1,762 officers. This compliments other ongoing initiatives aimed at the alignment of LIS operations and service delivery with international standards and best practices.

As immigration service personnel, you are the face of Mama Liberia, interacting with individuals from diverse backgrounds and stories. Your role is vital in ensuring a fair, efficient, and welcoming experience for all. Remember that your work has a direct impact on people's lives. You are not just processing applications; you are shaping futures, strengthening cross border collaboration, social cohesion, trade and livelihoods.

Ladies and gentlemen, with ongoing and new violent conflicts around the world derailing a global path to peace and achievement of SDG 16, where one-quarter of humanity lives in conflict-affected areas, and recent transitions have seen societies polarized, state security institutions have a crucial role to play in promoting a peaceful and inclusive society for sustainable development. The more capacitated they are the better they will be prepared to provide effective access to justice for all.  Therefore, building effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels is imperative to the attainment of the ARREST Agenda for Inclusive Development in Liberia. I wish therefore to congratulate the government of Liberia the MoJ and the LIS for embarking on this important capacity enhancement initiative in collaboration with the UNDP, IDLO, USAID and others. We remain committed in collaborating with national actors and partners to strengthen the institutional capacity of security sector institutions, the justice sector as well as civil society and community-based organization.

I am delighted to learn that the training is impactful and that the essential knowledge and skills acquired for the professional development of LIS officers will be transformational for effective service delivery. I wish to underscore how these skills enhance the effectiveness and professionalism of LIS, and where necessary, such pieces of training should not be an event, but replicated as ongoing re-tooling to enhance task performance. The LIS has been an invaluable institution in several ways.  In addition to supporting migration and development toward a safe, orderly, and legal migration, I wish to acknowledge your pivotal role in joint electoral security. I will be remiss if the mention is not made that a well-trained LIS is crucial for ensuring secure and peaceful elections. The importance of electoral security as a cornerstone of Liberia’s democratic process cannot be overemphasized.   Today as a result of the contributions of LIS and other state actors, Liberia’s success in the conduct of the recent elections has been celebrated around the World.

To this end, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am optimistic that the graduating officers will uphold professionalism and contribute to the rule of law.  I wish to express gratitude to the trainers for their dedication and positive outcomes, and to extend special appreciation for the steadfast support and commitment from LIS leadership and the Government of Liberia.  

In closing, I wish to reaffirm UNDP's commitment to supporting Liberia's institutional strengthening and secure future.  To the trainees, with the new skills I trust   you go and serve your people more diligently, professionally and impactful as agents of change for inclusive and sustainable development. 

I thank you for your attention.