IOM Joins UN High Commissioner for Refugees and Government of Tanzania to Host Regional Conference on Mixed Movements and Irregular Migration
IOM in conjunction with the UNHCR and the Government of Tanzania
will facilitate a regional conference with states and civil society
stakeholders next week in Dar es Salaam to discuss the mixed
movement of people that is currently taking place between the East,
Horn and Great Lakes regions of Africa to the southern part of the
continent.
The Conference, taking place September 6 and 7 will cover the
challenges that arise in mixed migratory movements, including
migrant vulnerability to abuse, human trafficking and concerns on
international protection of asylum seekers and refugees, in the
East and Southern Africa sub-regions. Tanzania lies at the
crossroads of migration flows in the region.
Mixed migratory movements are particular population flows within
and between countries which include refugees, asylum seekers,
economic migrants and migrants seeking to reunify with their family
abroad, amongst others.
Links
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target="_blank" title="">Conference on Refugee Protection and
International Migration
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title="">In Pursuit of the Southern Dream: Victims of Necessity,
Assessment of the Irregular Movement of Men from East Africa and
the Horn to South Africa
From Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia to South Africa's Atlantic
coast, growing numbers of people are travelling this complex 4,500
kilometre route, overland, by sea and by air, for many reasons
ranging from socio-economic to environmental and climatic as well
as political and security factors. In a mixed movement, these
migrants travel alongside each other, using the same routes and
means of transport but with different motivations and
objectives.
While the majority of people in mixed migration flows may move
in order to establish new livelihoods, join family members or for
educational opportunities, others do so in search of physical and
legal protection; fleeing their home countries, or countries where
they first sought asylum, for their own safety or to protect their
integrity and dignity and that of their families.
Due to their irregular status, many of those in mixed movements
resort to clandestine migration channels, where they are exposed to
violence and abuse by smugglers and where their lives may be at
risk. Compounding this is the fact that many of those involved do
not belong to an established legal category for which specific
protection arrangements have been established and thus they have no
recourse to what often amount to serious human rights violations
suffered en route to their destinations.
Although IOM does not have a legal protection function based on
mandate, the organization does provide de facto protection
through its activities to persons benefiting from its services.
For IOM, the mixed movement to Southern Africa holds a strong
interest and also constitutes a significant challenge to its
mandate of promoting safe, regular, orderly and humanely managed
migration.
Mixed movement, much of which is irregular in nature and
organized by human smugglers, is also of growing concern to states,
who regard it as a violation of their national laws as well as a
threat to their sovereignty, security and economy.
State responses including enforcement measures and efforts to
obstruct or deter migration movements, however, have been shown to
divert the flow to new and more dangerous routes and to drive
migrants underground, further limiting access to necessary
supports. To properly manage this challenge, governments need
effective mechanisms to identify vulnerable migrants or those
otherwise in need of protection such as asylum seekers or victims
of trafficking, and the capacity to deliver the appropriate
assistance and services.
In addressing the challenges posed by mixed migration flows, IOM
focuses on the development of comprehensive approaches to migration
management. The five main areas of IOM's interventions on mixed
migratory flows are direct assistance to migrants, technical
assistance to states on policy development and legislation,
training of government officials and other stakeholders,
dissemination of information to migrants and host communities, and
support to and participation in cooperation initiatives governing
mobility issues, such as the East African Community (EAC).
Recent IOM research has also contributed to better understanding
mixed migration flows in the region. "In Pursuit of the
Southern Dream: Victims of Necessity, Assessment of the Irregular
Movement of Men from East Africa and the Horn to South
Africa", published in 2009, documents the mixed migration
flows of Somalis and Ethiopians from their home countries and
towards South Africa. For more information see:
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"http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=507">http://publications.iom.int/bookstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=507.
The Conference on Refugee Protection and International
Migration will build on these initiatives as well as the
efforts of governments from participating countries. Key objectives
for the conference include:
1. Increasing understanding of the nature and scale of
south-bound mixed migratory movements from the East, Horn, and
Great Lakes sub regions of Africa.
2. Examining challenges to responding to the phenomenon of mixed
movements from a human rights-based approach including the adequacy
and effectiveness of the respective legal, policy, institutional,
operational and management frameworks and exploring ways of
enhancing such frameworks.
3. Establishing commonly agreed upon recommendations, and a Plan
of Action and Implementation spelling out how to achieve these
recommendations, with particular focus on regional
co-operation.
The Conference also highlights the challenges posed by mixed
migration flows in a South-South context while much attention has
been given to South-North migration flows.
The Government of the United Republic of Tanzanian will convene
the Conference, in collaboration with IOM and UNHCR with
participation by senior level government representatives from
Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi,
Mozambique, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
and Zimbabwe. Funding for the conference is provided in part by the
United States Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees,
and Migration (PRM).
Participants will include representatives from: the African
Union (AU); the EAC; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA); the Southern African Development Community (SADC);
the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD); the
International Labour Organization; the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations
Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),
and Interpol. Civil society representatives involved with
refugee protection and irregular migration in the context of mixed
migration issues in the Horn, Eastern and Southern Africa will also
be present.
Information on the conference is also available online at:
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"http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conference-on-Refugee-Protection-and-International-Migration/131895403522651?v=info"
target="_blank" title=
"">http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conference-on-Refugee-Protection-and-International-Migration/131895403522651?v=info.
For more information please contact:
Puseletso Mompei
IOM Pretoria
Tel: +27 71 68 999 66
E-mail:
"mailto:pmompei@iom.int">pmompei@iom.int