Chronicle Editor
Fidelis Munyoro Chief Reporter
Government is making sound progress towards the implementation of the mechanism to deal with complex migration challenges facing the country, a top Government official has said. For the past two decades, the country had been wrestling with numerous and many-sided migration challenges characterised by huge cross-border movement, increased human trafficking and smuggling among others.
Speaking at the launch of “Promoting Migration Governance in Zimbabwe”(PMGZ) in Harare on Thursday, Foreign Affairs Secretary Ambassador Joey Bimha applauded the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and other stakeholders for supporting the implementation of the mechanism. Ambassador Bimha said in response to the complex migration challenges the Government and IOM with funding from the European Union under the framework of the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) conceived and agreed to implement the PMGZ project.
“The project also aims at supporting the development of an implementation framework for migration governance which focuses on developing migration policies through a ‘whole-of-government’ approach, in close collaboration with Government and non-governmental stakeholders,” he said. Ambassador Bimha said an assessment on migration governance conducted last year highlighted the importance of putting in place a national mechanism that governs all aspects of migration in a holistic and coherent manner.
“With a view to improve strategic direction and oversight of immigration management in our country, we have, as part of PMGZ project, decided to establish the sector policy review committee,” he said.
“This committee, to be composed of senior-level officials (permanent secretaries) in ministries with migration related mandates, will provide oversight and direction to our officials who meet under the umbrella of the inter-ministerial committee on migration.” Government, Ambassador Bimha said, adopted the national diaspora police in July last year and as part of operationalising the policy, a National Diaspora directorate was set up in the Ministry of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion to spearhead and co-ordinate the process of diaspora engagement and their participation in national development.
“A well-managed migration system enables both governments and citizens to effectively utilise and access resources thereby contributing not only to the economic well-being of the citizens but also to the economic growth, social and political cohesion,” he said.
Ambassador Bimha also said the Government was in the process of finalising the national labour migration policy, which is set to formalise labour migration and strengthen its governance. He added that progress has also been made with the establishment of trafficking in persons’ secretariat within the Home Affairs ministry to co-ordinate national responses and interventions to the scourge of human trafficking.
“I am also happy to note that plans are underway to put in place a national migration policy to provide a well-balanced and comprehensive approach to migration management and serve multiple and interrelated objectives of ensuring and facilitating national security, employment of foreign recruited nationals, tourism facilitation and investment promotion.” Regional director for Southern Africa International Organisation for Migration, Mr Charles Kwenin commended the Government for making giant strides in putting in place the foundations for strengthening migration governance.
“The Government of Zimbabwe has been a member state of the IOM since 2002 and IOM remains committed to supporting this exemplary strategy towards a whole of government and whole of society approach to migration governance in Zimbabwe,” said Mr Kwenin. The head of Delegation of the European Union to Zimbabwe, Ambassador Philippe Van Damme urged the Government EU supported Zimbabwe’s efforts to establish a governance framework that allows state actors to manage migration in dialogue with non-state actors.
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