Botswana - IOM will today (23/10/12) hand over a fully equipped Migration Management National Training Centre to the Government of Botswana. Botswana Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Edwin Jenamiso Batshu and IOM Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Bernardo Mariano will attend the formal handover ceremony.

The centre aims to enhance the capacity of Botswana’s Immigration Service to better manage migration and improve border efficiency. Based at the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs HQ, it was set up as part of IOM’s “Capacity Building for Migration Management in Botswana” project, funded by the IOM Development Fund.

The facility, which is equipped with migration management training materials, 17 computers, a smart board, a printer, tools for passport verification procedures, UV lamps and magnifiers, will help Botswana to offer capacity building programmes for immigration officials on a regular basis.

Experts from IOM’s African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC) in Tanzania and IOM’s Regional Office in South Africa have already trained 16 Botswanan trainers who will provide training to immigration officers and law enforcement officers at the centre. They in turn have already trained some 137 colleagues from HQ and border posts around the country.

“This training facility and these resources will help us to enhance internal capacity building on migration management by institutionalizing and regularizing induction trainings,” said Home Affairs Minister Edwin Jenamiso Batshu, welcoming the opening of the centre.

According to the US State Department’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TiP) Report, Botswana is a source and destination country for women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. It experiences relatively high levels of immigration, including skilled professionals from across Africa, as well as refugees and asylum seekers from across the region. It became an IOM Member State in November 2010.

For more information please contact  

Gaone Dixon
IOM South Africa
Tel: +27 82 815 5161
Email: gdixon@iom.int  

or

Osesenaqa Lekgoko
Botswana Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs
Tel: +267 74 075 915
Email: oslekgoko@gov.bw