December 5, 2019 - The IOM African Capacity Building Centre (IOM ACBC) celebrated its 10th Anniversary in the presence of the Tanzanian Commissioner General of Immigration (CGI) Services Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Dr Anna Makakala, Ambassadors and High Commissioners from African Member States, Representatives from the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security and other donor countries, the Tanzanian Regional Immigration Training Academy (TRITA), United Nations (UN) Agencies the United Republic of Tanzania and Media in Dar Es Salaam.

Ten years ago and at the request of IOM African Member States, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Migration Agency and the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the IOM ACBC in Moshi, Kilimanjaro region, with the mandate of strengthening the capacity of IOM African Member States in the domain of migration management. As the result of the IOM ACBC work during the ten years period, nearly 7,000 migration practitioners, policy makers and government representatives from 53 African countries were trained by the centre through 240 trainings. Additionally, important and international migration tools including PEPMII Manual and App were produced by the centre.

“To address the capacity building needs and demands of African Member States, the centre’s work portfolio was primarily on the domain of Immigration and Border Management (IBM), however, IOM has the intention to broaden it to other key thematic migration management areas such as health at borders and cross border labour mobility” stated the IOM's Chief of Mission to the United Republic of Tanzania, Dr Qasim Sufi during his opening remarks of the event.

Dr Anna Makakala, the Commissioner General of Immigration (CGI) Services Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs said that, “the Tanzanian Regional Immigration Training Academy (TRITA) that physically hosts the IOM ACBC, gets an international recognition through this partnership and therefore appealed to all African countries to make use of IOM ACBC by sending their immigration officials to IOM ACBC in Tanzania for acquiring and exchanging knowledge and experiences on this very important and very fast evolving domain”. Referring to the recently (13 November 2019) renewed MoU between the Government of Tanzania and IOM, the Commissioner General reiterated during her closing remarks of the event, the Government's willingness to strengthen its collaboration with the IOM ACBC for the benefit not only to Tanzania but also to all other African countries.

The event also witnessed the handover of the PEPMII Mobile Application QR Code to the Tanzanian Government by the Ambassador of the Netherlands, H. E. Mr. Jeroen Verheul, the Deputy Director of the Repatriation and Departure Services of the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, Mr. Ewald Riks, and the representative of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Mrs. Marcella Ferraciolo.

For more information, please contact IOM ACBC:
Mr. Nelson Goncalves ngoncalves@iom.int
Mr. Neil Roberts nroberts@iom.int