. Kalaba

By STEPHEN KAPAMBWE –
DEPORTATION of illegal immigrants, arrests of those entering the country without legal documents and discoveries of human remains suspected to be of human trafficking victims constitute just some of the news reports in local media in Zambia.
Globally, the world is faced with a period of unprecedented human mobility.
Migration has become a key issue at global, regional and bilateral level, as well as at national and local levels.
With some 244 million international migrants in the world today, more people are moving away from their countries of origin than ever before in recorded history.
Today, one in every seven people is a migrant; be it a refugee, a student, a migrant worker or a professional who moves between international postings.
With opportunities restricted in Europe, migrants are seeking opportunities in the south, with south-south migration increasing.
Southern Africa is a region characterised by high mobility.
The region is also a springboard for regular and irregular migration to Europe and  America.
In 2013, there were 4 million migrants, who included undocumented ones, in the southern African region, 44 per cent of which were female and 20 per cent were under 19 years of age.
These flows mostly originated from the Horn of Africa, particularly Ethiopia and Somalia.
They consisted of refugees, asylum seekers, economic migrants, and victims of trafficking such as women and children.
The majority of these migrants try to reach their destinations through established smuggling and trafficking networks.
At least 20,000 migrants travel through the Great Lakes and SADC regions to try and reach South Africa each year.
The migrants face growing trends of xenophobia, racism and discrimination in many parts of the world where migration is seen more as a problem to be solved than a human reality to be managed.
Recently, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Zambia hosted celebrations to mark the organisation’s 65th anniversary of its dedicated service to the welfare of migrants all over the world.
The celebrations coincided with the International Migrants Day (IMD) which is commemorated on December 18 every year.
To mark both events, the IOM launched the first Global Migration Film Festival held as part of the United Nations (UN) Together Campaign.
This campaign was commemorated through IOM’s Together #ForMigration which sought to encourage the celebration of diversity by changing the negative perception and attitudes towards refugees and migrants and strengthening the social contract between host countries and communities and the refugees and migrants.
IOM was also celebrating the fact that it had become part of the UN as the UN Migration Agency starting from September 19, 2016, when the UN hosted the Summit for Refugees and Migrants in New York.
The IOM rose from the ashes of the Second World War some 65 years ago.
It was created to resettle refugees during the post-war period.
IOM’s history tracks made-made and natural disasters of the past 65 years.
Over the years, IOM has grown into 165 members states which include Zambia.
Its global presence has expanded to over 500 filed locations on all five continents and more than 90 per cent of its staff deployed in the field.
During the celebrations hosted at Alliance Française in Lusaka, IOM chief of Mission Abibatou Wane said as part of the UN, IOM was committed to supporting Zambia towards achieving sustainable development through implementation of the UN Development Partnership Framework.
She paid tribute to the UN for having, for the first time, made it possible for heads of State and government to discuss, at a global level, issues related to migration and refugees.
This was achieved during the UN heads of State and government Summit held on September 19, 2016.
She said by meeting at the summit, the heads of State and government sent an important political message that migration and refugee matters are key in the international political agenda.
It was during the same summit that heads of State and government made several bold commitments in the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants that were adopted.
Among other things, the heads of State and government committed to transforming the IOM into a UN agency in order to strengthen governance of migration as well as developing a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
The heads of State and government also agreed to follow up their commitments through an international conference scheduled for 2018.
In Zambia, IOM was established in 1992.
Since then, it has closely worked with the Government to address challenges related to migration.
It has also assisted the Government to maximise the benefits of migration, in particular with regard to addressing mixed challenges as well as human trafficking and smuggling.
IOM is also working with the Government in the aspect of realising migrants’ rights, protection of vulnerable groups like women and children.
The organisation is also working with the Government to deal with issues relating to health of migrants, gender based violence, operations, emergencies and recovery, labour migration and development and border management, to mention but a few.
United Nations Resident Coordinator Janet Rogan said the UN is grateful for Zambia’s long standing and continued commitment as well as President Edgar Lungu’s personal leadership to the cause of refugees and migrants.
She said President Lungu led a very powerful delegation to the Refugee
Summit where he reaffirmed Zambia’s commitment to continued hosting of migrants and refugees.
She said President Lungu also committed to ensure that migrants and refugees have access to fundamental services that are the right of every person, regardless of their status.
She announced that Zambia and the UN have designed a new concept of sustainable resettlement to help former refugees and migrants to be fully integrated.
“This concept recognises the core Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of Leaving No-One Behind.
“The Sustainable Resettlement concept is also the primary vehicle for shifting from a humanitarian to a long-term development approach that will enable the UN in Zambia to support local integration of former refugee’s through an integrated local development approach,” she said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Harry Kalaba said the death of 26 migrants this year from suffocation, road accidents or disease while in illegal and risky transit was an indication that Zambia had not been spared from challenges arising from global migration.
My Kalaba paid tribute to IOM for its commitment to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society.
He said Zambia has been an IOM member state since 1992 and the country has since established longstanding collaboration with IOM on migration governance.
The minister said Zambia had demonstrated its commitment to protect vulnerable people like migrants who include victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied and separated children, among others.
Mr Kalaba said Zambia has shown its commitment through enactment of the Anti-human Trafficking Policy in 2007 and its related Act in 2008.
“In addition, the protection guidelines and National Referral
Mechanism for the Protection of Victims of Trafficking and Vulnerable Migrants were officially launched in 2012 and 2014 respectively,” he said.
He said there is a tendency to view migration in a negative light mainly due to the various challenges associated with it.
“However, migration can be a benefit to migrants and society through social, cultural and economic contributions, among others.
“Indeed, Zambians in other countries contribute in this way to their host countries, but they also bring back to Zambia in terms of acquired skills, cultural and social values as well as remittances, and the same is true of non-Zambians who come to Zambia,” he said.
He explained that as a result, the Government recognised the potential of Zambians living abroad hence the desire by the State to encourage them in the development of the country by developing the National Diaspora Policy with the support of stakeholders that include IOM.
“The Government is also actively engaged at regional level through regional bodies like SADC and COMESA, in the establishment of regional consultative processes relating to immigration, border management, health, labour mobility, irregular migration, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and others,” he said.
He said migration, in its many forms, is not a new issue for Zambia because since independence, the country had hosted many refugees from neighbouring nations and beyond.
Zambia has continued to experience various migration inflows from, to and through its territory, in what can be termed as ‘mixed migration,’ where economic migrants, asylum seekers, victims of trafficking, adults, children and men migrate.
Mr Kalaba said the introduction of the IOM into the UN family at the Summit for Fefugees and Migrants in New York would enhance coordination.
He said the agency will oversee issues related to migration and the process of migration governance under the framework of the UN.
He described the Refugees and Migrants Summit, which was attended by
President Lungu, as a landmark event that enabled the world to agree on a better response to large movements of refugees and migrants.
“For the first time, world leaders came together to address issues affecting refugees and migrants. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants that was adopted expresses the political will of world leaders to save lives, protect migrants and share responsibility on a global scale,” he said.
It is gratifying that for the first time in mainstream global development, the UN’s 2030 Agenda on sustainable development, which was adopted on September 27, 2015, by world leaders, includes migration in relation to the lowering of inequalities by the year 2030.