It gave the state until 26 March to provide more information on the plan.

In January, the migrants – mostly from Eritrea and Sudan – were offered $3,500 (£2,510) and a plane ticket to leave Israel voluntarily by the end of March.

Otherwise, they faced detention and subsequent expulsion. The UN refugee agency criticised the plan.

The Israeli court issued its ruling on Thursday, following a legal challenge by a group of migrants from Eritrea and Sudan.

The government now cannot deport African migrants until the court receives additional information.

Israeli authorities say there are currently more than 40,000 African migrants in Israel, describing them as “infiltrators”.

Most of them entered from Egypt several years ago, before a new fence was built along the desert border. This has almost ended illegal crossings.

Only single young men are affected by the government plan.

It exempts children, women, parents of dependent minors and victims of slavery and human trafficking.

The authorities have said the migrants’ return will be humane and “voluntary”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that an unchecked influx of African migrants could threaten Israel’s Jewish character.

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Source: BBC

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‘’We are aware much of the success of post-German re-construction was done by migrants and we expect that in moving forward Germany will treat migrants humanely,’’ he said.

[contextly_sidebar id=”AsNLho5E9PvmSu8waeZSK5SyMP8SWQYw”]Speaking at the 5^th German-African Economic Forum in Dortmund Germany under the theme ‘’African Markets, Potential and Opportunities for German Businesses’’, President Akufo Addo said: “there is a lot of opportunity for German capital, technology and enterprise in Africa, and we welcome companies to participate in the exceptional opportunities that exist on the continent.’’

President Akufo Addo also urged his colleague African leaders to diversify agriculture in order to make it a more attractive venture for the youth on the continent.

‘’We have a duty to make things work for our youth, let’s modernize agriculture to attract the youth,” he added.

Nana Akufo-Addo, at an earlier event, spoke of the need for Africa to improve the conditions on the continent that will enable the youth to thrive and not seek greener pastures in Europe.

He stated that given the innate need young individuals have to succeed, “there will always be those amongst our young people, who would want to try their luck in foreign countries.”

He however noted that with the requisite skills acquired through education “they would not have to risk drowning in the Mediterranean sea, they would be headhunted and treated with dignity…Let’s make things better for our people especially our youth so they stay here and work to develop the continent,” he added.

“Opportunities for all”

Nana Akufo-Addo vowed last November to reverse the trend of illegal migration from Ghana by building a sound economy with opportunities for all.

The trend, he bemoaned, was increasingly becoming a national security concern hence the resolve to work towards ending same.

President Akufo-Addo, speaking in an address at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, said his administration was on the way to providing these economic conditions to stem the tide of illegal migration, and transforming the structure of the economy will be key to this.

“The Macro-economy has been stabilizing. The fiscal deficit which stood at 9.5 percent at the end of 2016, has been reduced to 6.3 percent. Inflation within the same period had declined from 15.4 percent to 11.6 percent. Our economy has grown from 3.3 percent to 7.9 percent. Interest rates are declining and we are now witnessing a more stable cedi.”

“We are on the path to creating wealth and improving the lives of our people. We are determined to do that by transforming the structure of our economy… we have to move and we are moving towards an economy of processed agriculture and engineering goods and services. That is the way to job creation on a mass base and an improvement in the incomes of ordinary Ghanaians.”

German-African Economic Forum

The forum is bringing together more than 300 participants from Africa and Germany, including start-ups, entrepreneurs, policymakers and investors to strengthen business ties between Germany and Africa.

The event will offer details on trade and investment opportunities for German companies in Africa, including industry, and country-specific information provided by successful entrepreneurs and renowned experts.

Additionally, the forum will focus on four sectors, namely: Infrastructure and Construction; Renewable Energy, Environmental Technology and Water Management; Mechanical and Plant Engineering and Digital Economy.

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By: Sammi Wiafe/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Three survivors said most of those who drowned were Pakistani nationals.

Libya has for years been a major transit route for migrants trying to reach southern Europe by sea.

But last year the EU reached a controversial deal to provide help to the Libyan coastguard to stop the flow of boats carrying migrants and refugees to Italy.

Aid agencies and the UN accused European governments of taking an inhuman approach.

“Ten bodies are reported to have washed up on Libyan shores,” the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement.

A spokesperson said Pakistanis were increasingly trying to make the perilous crossing to Italy.

Many are packed into unseaworthy vessels by smugglers who then abandon them to their fate in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Source: BBC

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On the video, released by CNN this week, young men are seen being auctioned off as farm workers.

The AU chairman, President Alpha Conde of Guinea, demanded prosecutions over a “despicable” trade “from another era”.

Migrants trying to reach Europe have spoken of being held by smugglers and forced to work for little or no money.

The footage released by CNN appears to show youths from Niger and other sub-Saharan countries being sold to buyers for about $400 (£300) at undisclosed locations in Libya.

“These modern slavery practices must end and the African Union will use all the tools at its disposal,” Mr Conde said.

Libya has opened an investigation into the practice, CNN reported on Friday.

In April, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it had gathered evidence of slavery in Libya.

The IOM’s chief of mission for Libya, Othman Belbeisi, told the BBC at the time that migrants were priced according to their abilities.

“Apparently they don’t have money and their families cannot pay the ransom, so they are being sold to get at least a minimum benefit from that,” he said.

“The price is definitely different depending on your qualifications, for example if you can do painting or tiles or some specialised work then the price gets higher.”

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Source: BBC

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Speaking at a press conference today, Chairman of the association, Alhaj Saeed Shereef said the operations of over 270 illegal migration agencies in the country is posed a threat to citizens who want to genuinely work outside the country.

The chairman added that “these illegal agencies operate with impunity, as you all know, dragging the name of this noble business into disrepute and causing a lot of harm to our dear country Ghana. We hereby plead to the government and all other concerned authorities to help us eliminate these unscrupulous illegal agencies, who are not only causing harm to Ghana’s good reputation  but also pushing us out of business.”

He advised potential migrants to contact the Ghana Labour Department to verify the status of the agency before dealing with them.

“We are also appealing to the general public to be wary of those illegal agencies, anybody who intend to immigrate for greener pastures must do so legally through any of the twenty six members of GHAPEA for safe and comfortable migration,”he added

GHAPEA also appealed for intensified media advocacy to sensitize citizens on safe ways of migration

“The media should help us educate the public for them to know the difference between legal and illegal migration. The legal migration which GHAPEA represents and the illegal migration represented by the illegal agents who according to our research findings are now about two hundred and seventy in number,” the Chairman added

Their appeal comes in the wake of various media reports on the alleged abuse of some migrants in the Gulf Region. Both tradition and social media got flooded with pictures, audios and videos of some Ghanaian migrants allegedly subjected to inhuman treatment in the Middle East.

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By: Anass Seidu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This he said will be achieved if good content is produced for television programming, since viewers will have an array of television channels to choose from.

This means that the best content attracts more attention; and will generate revenue through pay per view arrangements.

[contextly_sidebar id=”DN92rtJc8dM3Fm7IBoL5uEH64a6BAsk9″]According to Mr. Adom-Otchere, the key characteristics of digital TV are that, all TV stations can be seen nationwide, all TV picture and sound quality will be high and the same for every station, and TV pictures will mostly be seen via a box or a decoder.

Mr. Adom-Otchere, Host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, who has appreciable understanding and knowledge of the analogue to digital switch, says the digital regime will benefit TV owners, content developers, advertisers and the government immensely; whiles giving the viewer a unique viewing experience.

In an article analyzing the pros and cons of the impending switch, Mr. Paul Adom-Otchere said: “Digital television has been used to create huge industry and wealth for nations such as the US, Europe and Asia. We now have a wonderful opportunity to stop applying taxpayer’s money to pay our Sports men, as we can generate money from monetizing their content both in Ghana and abroad whenever they play as in the case of our footballers.”

“Content monetization must be the key driver of digital migration” he noted.

What kind of content will be on the other channels?

What has happened in other countries is that, the existing channels as we know them have created new platforms and migrated their most popular programs onto the other pay channels.

So for instance, TV3 could create TV3 plus; and migrate their best programs to those channels. That means, a non-paying subscriber will be limited to see only the first 20 channels, which will include TV3 regular, but may not see “Ghana’s most beautiful” if that has been shifted to TV3 PLUS.

Same as if VIASAT decides to migrate a program like, “at home with Joselyn Dumas” to VIASAT EXTRA on the pay side of the box, a subscriber who is non-paying; will not see that show live.

The TV channels may decide to show the premium content the next day on the free channels as well. So that “Ghana most beautiful” will show live on Sunday night on TV3 PLUS; but will show the next day on Monday evening on TV3 regular etc.

The other kind of content that could be made available on the pay side; is the SPECIAL EVENTS channel that will broadcast special events such as sports events (Black Stars games or Mayweather fights) movie premiere and reality shows etc.

These will also be aired at high premium so that even if a subscriber is already paying, she may have to pay extra fee to see that premium content whilst non-paying subscribers will pay a bit just to see the special event content only. So that one may be a non-paying subscriber; and therefore sees only the regular 20 channels; but on a particular day, he wants to see the Black Stars game against England, he is happy to pay for that only; and return to his non-paying status, the system and decoder should allow one to see that.

We’ll extend deadline for digital migration if … – Ursula Ekuful

Meanwhile Ghana’s inability to complete the sale of the second 4G spectrum may compel it to extend the September 2017 deadline for the complete migration from analogue to digital platform.

This is the indication from the Minister for Communications, Ursula Owusu Ekuful. According to her, the development may put a strain on government’s funding to support the infrastructure needed to facilitate the smooth take off for the digital migration.

Ghana has already missed the June 2016 deadline for the migration from analogue to digital television platform.

Deadline for switch

The global timeline for all countries to migrate unto the digital platform is 2020.Failure to meet this time period will lead to a complete cut off of defaulting countries.

Ghana signed on to the Geneva 2006 (GE-06) Agreement of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) establishing the Digital Terrestrial Broadcasting Frequency Plan in the radio frequency bands 174–230 MHz (VHF Band III) and 470–862 MHz (UHF Bands IV&V).

The Agreement provided for a transition period during which the analogue television services and digital services will co-exist before the analogue services are switched off.

The transition periods were set to end on 17th June 2015 for the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Band and 17th June 2020 for the Very High Frequency (VHF) Band. But Ghana has decided that the transition period for both the UHF and VHF bands should be on 21st September, 2017.

Consequently, the Government of Ghana has established a nationwide Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) network that would provide coverage to at least 95% of the population and to carry at least forty (40) standard definition (SD) television programme channels in digital format.

The Ministry of Communications has since engaged stakeholders to develop the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) Broadcasting Policy, 2016, which is currently awaiting Cabinet approval.
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By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The migration was expected to take off in June 17, 2015, but was later postponed to September 2017, due to some hitches in the migration process.

[contextly_sidebar id=”3AmgyWWnlnvzNxpaSyMflLB7fm350ZoI”]Speaking during her vetting at Parliament House on Wednesday, Ursula Owusu said the deadline might be extended further due to some exigencies that the Ministry is currently dealing with.

“I’m not sure about the switch over taking place in the next few weeks. The original time-table for migration was June 2015, it’s been missed. The deadline I inherited was September 2017, I’m still receiving briefings on it and looking at the state of infrastructure, it may be necessary to extend the deadline, I don’t know. Sitting here right now, I cannot tell you because we are still having discussions on that. “

“…My priority now is looking for the financing to power the network that has been the infrastructure put in place, and then subsequent to that, we can think about looking for additional funding for the set-up boxes which will enable those who have analog TV sets watch the new digital transmission; so once we solve all these problems, then we can stick to the September 2017 timeline, but if need be, we may have to extend it.”

Ghana missed the initial June 2015 deadline set under the Geneva 2006 agreement of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), after delays in accessing funding for the project.

The then Minister of Communications, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, who announced this after receiving an evaluation report from bidders for the deployment of digital broadcasting infrastructure in the country, expressed regret that the country could not meet the deadline due to delays in accessing funding for the project.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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