2nd- 6th JUNE 2014, IOM Tanzania is in Kagera conducting a training for a group of 40 Tanzanian immigration officials on the application of the biometric registration system recently created by IOM in close cooperation with the Tanzanian Immigration Services Department. The planned registration of migrants in Western Tanzania comes as a response to the migration crisis resulting from last year’s sudden expulsions of irregular migrants in that region.

The purpose of the training is to ensure that the 40 immigration officials will be able to use the equipment and the electronic database to register irregular migrants - on households and individual level- in Kagera, Kigoma and Geita regions. The registered migrants will be issued with a registration card, granting them an opportunity to regularize their status, by applying for a residence permit, or to get a grace period to pack all belongings and return to country of origin through IOM Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) programme.

“The system will make our work much easier and will allow us to have all relevant data in the same place and at the same time“,said the Regional Immigration Officer in Kagera, adding,  “The immigration department does not have enough resources to cope with the current migration crisis and to respond to all management needs”.

The training is conducted in the framework of the project “Migration Crisis Support to Address Migrant Expulsions in Western Tanzania”, funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (UK).

For more info please contact Nelson Goncalves: ngoncalves@iom.int