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THERE is a need for Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries to come up with formal bilateral agreements to address migration issues, Public Service, Labour, and Social Welfare Minister, Professor Paul Mavima, has said.
He was speaking while closing the Regional Capacity Development Workshop on Ethical Recruitment in Victoria Falls recently.
The Ministry of Public Service, in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Africa Regional Migration Programme (ARMP) and the Southern Africa Migration Management (SAMM) hosted the week-long workshop attended by two thirds of Sadc member states.
“This has been a very important workshop, which was capacitating officials from member states on issues relating to international labour migrations, management of it, protection of rights of migrant workers and also how to promote a seamless environment for international labour migration,” said Prof Mavima.
He said there was mutual benefits for source and receiving countries.
“We are realising that there is a need as Sadc to come up with standard operating procedures for international labour migration.
“We are also realising the importance of coming up with formal bilateral agreements among our countries and indeed even beyond Sadc.
There is a lot of intra-regional migration, which benefits both countries of origin and the receiving countries,” said Prof Mavima.
He said the major highlight of the workshop was that a majority of Sadc member states attended the workshop physically while others participated virtually.
Minister Mavima said Zimbabwe has already moved in by crafting diaspora and national labour migration policies to address some of the pressing migration issues.
He said the Second Republic has prioritised migration issues in its Vision 2030 being implemented under the National Development Strategy (NDS1) (2022-2025).
After the successful launch of the National Labour Migration Policy in 2021, significant progress towards the implementation of the agreed activities and strategies has been made.
Zimbabwe is also working on establishing Migrant Resource Centres in Harare and Bulawayo to facilitate pre-departure orientation, educate migrants on the dangers of human trafficking and facilitate referrals to service providers.
The workshop deliberated on strategies to strengthen and enhance regional mechanisms and policy convergence on fair and ethical recruitment practices.
This is in line with the decision of the Sadc Employment and Labour Sector (ELS) and the ecommendations of the 2019 Migration Dialogue in Southern Africa (MIDSA) held in Windhoek Namibia.
IOM Zimbabwe chief of mission, Mr Mario Lito Malanca commended the Government for its continued commitment to promoting good migration governance.
He acknowledged the steady progress in the implementation of the National Labour Migration Policy and cooperation in facilitating international mobility including crossborder recruitment.-The Chronicle
