The IOM African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC) yesterday (8 May) launched a new capacity-building project for immigration and border officials from five African countries.

The training, which will take place in Moshi, United Republic of Tanzania, will see the UN Migration Agency (IOM) provide instruction on a rotating basis to 100 border and immigration officials from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the United Republic of Tanzania and potentially three other countries to be identified during the project period.

This will be carried out under the auspices of a project entitled, Enhancing Migration Management in African States through Capacity Building on Integrated Border Management and Countering Irregular Migration, which is funded by the Ministry of Security and Justice of the Netherlands.

The total budget for the project is Euro 274,098. This week’s launch event was attended by government, donor and IOM officials at the Tanzania Regional Immigration Training Academy (TRITA) in Moshi.

The project is supervised by the Repatriation and Departure Services (RDS) of the Ministry of Security and Justice of the Netherlands and targets middle management officials from border agencies. The officials will be trained in immigration and migration-related topics with a particular emphasis on migration management. Techniques in screening travellers and investigation of reported cases of human trafficking will be two areas of concern, all within the framework of an integrated border-management approach at national, regional and international levels.

Speaking at the launch, Ambassador Celestine Mushy, Tanzania’s Director of Multilateral Cooperation and East African Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commended RDS and IOM for their timely intervention. “African migrants have perished while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe,” he told the audience, “And I call upon the international community to treat migrants with humanity.”

Jan Willem Konig, the Senior Advisor of the RDS said: “It is the joint responsibility of the international community to address challenges related to irregular migration and human trafficking that is causing the suffering and death of tens of thousands of migrants.”

IOM Tanzania Chief of Mission, Dr. Qasim Sufi thanked the donor, the Government of the Netherlands through the RDS, for the financial support to the project and committed IOM’s continued support to use capacity-building to equip officials with the knowledge and skills to meet the complex migration challenges and appealed to the participants to make good use of their newly acquired expertise for the benefit of migrants.

For further information, please contact: Charles Mkude, IOM Tanzania, Tel: +255 7843 9 6426,  Email: cmkude@iom.int or Marcellino Ramkishun, Tel: +255 6891 9 1483, Email: mramkishun@iom.int