Online Reporter
Remember Deketeke
Herald Correspondent
ZIMBABWE and the United Kingdom have reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation against human trafficking and promoting safe, orderly and regular migration, with officials warning that criminal syndicates are increasingly exploiting vulnerable people through illegal migration.
The commitment was made during a reception hosted by the British Embassy in Harare at the launch of the Migration Week ahead of the International Day Against Trafficking in Persons, commemorated annually on July 30.
Speaking at the event, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Permanent Secretary Ambassador Raphael Faranisi said the Migration Week programme sought to promote a balanced understanding of migration by highlighting both its benefits and associated risks.
“We have been invited by the British Embassy to celebrate Migration Week and basically the focus is to share perspectives through training on how to promote responsible migration,” he said.
“Most people, when you talk about migration, see it in very negative terms. But migration, if well handled, presents vast economic opportunities in terms of skills transfer, promoting trade and investment and ensuring that whatever you do is based on best practices.”
Ambassador Faranisi said organised criminal syndicates often lured unsuspecting people with false promises of employment and better lives abroad.
“There are also attendant negative consequences because some criminal networks misrepresent to innocent people the benefits of going abroad. The surprising thing is that they are then drawn into criminal syndicates. This is organised by large criminal syndicates,” he said.
Ambassador Faranisi commended the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the British Government for supporting Zimbabwe’s border management authorities through training programmes aimed at detecting criminal activities linked to migration.
Interim British Ambassador Dr Jo Abbot said while migration remained an important driver of economic growth and skills development, governments had a shared responsibility to protect vulnerable people from exploitation.
“So tonight we have had a reception here at the British Residence in Harare because later this week, on July 30, it is the International Day Against Human Trafficking,” she said.
“Human trafficking is a very big issue globally. Many countries are struggling with it and it comes alongside migration. Migration on its own is a good thing when it’s regular, when it’s legal and when it’s orderly.”
Dr Abbot said migration had brought significant benefits to both Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom, with people travelling for economic opportunities and professional development.
However, she warned that criminal networks continued to prey on vulnerable people.
“There are always a small minority of people that get exploited. Those can be vulnerable people, they can be children and minors, they can be young women and they can even be young men,” Dr Abbot said.
She said the UK had deployed a team from its Home Office Border Force to Zimbabwe to train frontline officers responsible for border security.
