The Government of the United Republic of Tanzania through its Ministry of Home Affairs - Department of Immigration Services (TISD) has been working to address migration-management related issues in the country under the project titled “Migrants Registration Support for Tanzania (MiREG)”, a project implemented by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the UN Migration Agency, with the financial support of the United Kingdom (UK) Government. In this framework a mission was carried out to Tanga Region on the north-eastern border with Kenya from 15^th to 20^th June 2020, where the team visited its eight (8) districts: namely Tanga, Mkinga, Pangani, Muheza, Korogwe, Lushoto, Kilindi and Handeni. This is the continuation of the visits to all 11 regions which are within the scope of the Migrants Registration Support for Tanzania. With this mission, a total of 6 regions have been visited so far since the first one that was carried out in Feb 2020.

The project aims at enhancing Government’s capacity to address irregular migration and promotes humane, orderly and rights-based migration and border management by contributing to government efforts in national immigration status determination processes in Tanzania. The implementation of the project is informed by the Comprehensive Migration Management Strategy in Tanzania II, known as COMMIST II. Furthermore, in all the locations visited by the team the distribution of COMMIST II documents was carried out. 

The mission team commenced with a visit to the Regional Commissioner (RC) Hon. Martin Shigella, in the presence of the Regional Security Committee composed by the Regional Police Commissioner (RPC) , Regional Security Officer (RSO), Regional Administrative Secretary (RAS), Regional Commander for Prisons, Regional Commander-Tanzania Police Defence Force (TPDF), and the host Regional Immigration Officer (RIO). The leader of the mission team presented our mission objective and its relation to the Government agenda to register all migrants in the country targeting 11 regions as indicated in COMMIST II.  The Regional Commissioner Mr. Martin Shigella shared important inputs with the team and ensured the support of Regional authorities in carrying out the exercise. The Regional Police Commissioner (RPC) was appreciative to the initiative taken by both Tanzania Immigration Services Department (TISD) and International Organisational for Migration (IOM), wishing that “the exercise will achieve the expected results”. While Regional Immigration Officer (RIO) Mr. Mbaraka Batenga stressed the importance of the cosmopolitan nature of Tanga region thus this must be considered during planning process and during status determination phase.

Among the districts visited by the team, the Handeni District Commissioner (DC),Hon. Godwin Gondwe was glad to share his observations and advise that the orientation session to involve  Ward Executive Officers (WEOs) and Village Executive Officers (VEOs) and other key actors as they need to understand the intention of the exercise and the modality of implementation considering that these leaders play a crucial role among communities.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Matteo RONGIONE- IOM Tanzania |Email: MRONGIONE@iom.int or Mobile +255 699 617 770,  Ms. Valda CHALI - IOM Tanzania |Email: vchali@iom.int or Mobile +255 685248063