Story by Fairstars Mukungurutse
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has expressed satisfaction with Zimbabwe’s migration policy.
This came out during a meeting between IOM council Chairperson, Her Excellency Dr Katharina Stasch and the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Honourable July Moyo in Harare this Monday.
During their meeting, a host of issues including labour migration, social welfare and migration policies came under the spotlight.
“I am very pleased that I had time to discuss with the honourable minister a couple of very important issues including the challenges of climate change and the challenges that climate change brings for the communities on migration. We also discussed migration policies and I learnt about the memorandum of understanding that Zimbabwe has been concluding and planning to negotiate with other countries. I want to congratulate Zimbabwe on its policy when it comes to migration and regular migration, creating opportunities for many. I’m looking very much forward to my visit here in Zimbabwe and to learn more,” she said.
Minister Moyo highlighted flagship projects that the government is working on in collaboration with IOM.
“In Beitbridge when we were thinking a lot of our people will return from South Africa, we built a reception centre together and also how to organize so that we can receive those people and give them psychosocial support reintegration orientation. We sent a number of Zimbabweans to Rwanda to go and work there and we crafted a memorandum between Zimbabwe and Rwanda with the assistance of the IOM we are now assisting those who want to go overseas, even students, we built a centre in Harare and Bulawayo.
“On the issue of unaccompanied children crossing borders, we are vigilant during holidays, we have created unaccompanied children facilities in Beitbridge and Plumtree because those are the areas with the highest prevalence. We don’t have enough data on migration. If you ask me how many Zimbabweans are in the diaspora we don’t have that data. We see the money that is coming, our remittances are very high right now but we are not documenting our people who are going outside. There is inward migration, the number of people who are working in Zimbabwe who are on employment permits, we need that data,” he said.
The discussions also explored potential areas of cooperation and strategies for addressing common challenges in the region.
