More shelters to be built for migrants

The R4 million project, funded by the European Commission and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will target vulnerable and stranded Zimbabwean migrants in Musina, which is the port of entry into South Africa.

The acting Chief of Mission at IOM South Africa, Dr Erick Ventura, and Musina Mayor, Councillor Carol Phiri on Friday attended the ground breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of the massive project.

Dr Ventura said the project would include the upgrading of the accommodation, living and dining areas, the building of kitchens and installation of water and sanitation facilities.

“We will also build security walls and supply furniture, including beds with mosquito nets,” he said.

Dr Ventura said the new accommodation would improve living conditions for women and unaccompanied minors who had previously endured difficult living conditions.

“Many of the children have left their families at home or lost contact with them on the journey to the border. Minors are particularly a vulnerable group, because they arrive in a foreign country without their parents. The majority has fled difficult and dramatic living conditions and some have even experienced the loss of family along the way. These children have the right to special protection,” he said.

Unaccompanied minors and women are the most vulnerable group largely being targeted by armed robbery syndicates operating along the Limpopo River and some of them have been raped.

According to Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) an average of 16 border jumpers were being raped and robbed every month as several Zimbabweans continue to stream into the neighbouring country through undesignated entry points.

MSF, which is also known as Doctors Without Borders, has since established Sexual and Gender Based Violence Clinics in the border towns of Musina and Beitbridge in which the non-governmental organisation is mainly targeting, in-transit truck drivers, commercial sex workers and sexually abused irregular migrants seeking STI treatment, trauma counselling, tetanus, HIV and Aids tests and anti-retroviral post exposure prophylaxis (PEP).

“By improving the shelters and offering return assistance to those in need, we can restore some of their dignity and basic human rights. As IOM as we have noted that migrants continue to endure humiliating living conditions in Musina,” Dr Ventura said.

He said his organisation would also conduct capacity-building workshops for shelter staff on shelter management, case management and programme management in order to address capacity constraints of community-based and faith-based organisations and shelters providing protective assistance to migrants in Musina.

“Certain categories of migrants require special protection, including women, children, and people with disabilities, people living with HIV and AIDS, victims of torture, and victims of trafficking,” said Dr Ventura.

Cllr Phiri commended IOM for launching the project in the border town.

She also appealed to other humanitarian organisations to emulate IOM.

IOM is also running an assisted voluntary return and re-integration (AVRR) programme in Musina, which is aimed at assisting 70 vulnerable Zimbabwean migrants to return home.

Musina Hospital provides pre-departure screening for all AVRR beneficiaries. Apart from providing shelter, the IOM office in Musina also provides protection and family-tracing assistance to stranded migrants and unaccompanied minors.

The office is also actively involved in strengthening the local response to address the health and social needs of migrants.

IOM has since 2005 been providing deportees from South Africa and Botswana with assistance in the form of food, medication, overnight accommodation, transport to travel to their homes as well as information on safe migration procedures.

The organisation has since opened two reception and support centres in Beitbridge and Plumtree to cater for deportees from South Africa and Botswana.

The Beitbridge reception and support centre has a capacity to handle 1 500 deportees at a given time.