BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Two Kingdoms working together for a good purpose.
This is Eswatini and Lesotho, the two Kingdoms in the Southern African Region who have recently met in Lesotho to address migration policies.
A courtesy call by a task force team on migration management from Eswatini led by the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Nhlanhla Nxumalo, the Ministry’s officers, and the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) officers, embarked on a study tour in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
Revealing this information was the IOM Lesotho through a statement.
IOM is the acronym for International Organisation for Migration.
“On their study tour, the Kingdom of Eswatini task force on migration management paid a courtesy call to the PS of Lesotho’s Ministry of Finance and Development Planning,” read the IOM Lesotho statement.
The statement also revealed that the purpose of the visit was to study exchanging experiences and best practices with Lesotho National Consultative Committee o Migration focusing on diaspora, labour migration, border management and counter trafficking issues.
When contacted for comment, Nxumalo, the Ministry of Home Affairs PS, said he was still out of the country; however, he would give full report on Lesotho visit once back.
Over a week ago, we published that the Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Immigration Department, hosted its first Migration Policy Development Project meeting, at the United Nations Building, in order to develop a well-managed national policy and comprehensive migration governance in the country.
The Ministry is in the process of undertaking Migration Profile Policy through technical support from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The meeting was opened by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) country representatives Jeremias Isaias Pais Mendes. Mendes assured the IOM support for Eswatini Government and the Ministry in order to push policy that will inform the immigration Bill.
Addressing the meeting, the Acting Chief Immigration Officer Sandile Mazibuko endorsed the multi-sectorial Migration Management Task Force which is made of sixteen (16) members from various sectors in the public service and civil organizational set-up combined.
“The general objective of the establishment of the Technical Committee is to oversee and provide strategic guidance on the development of the National Migration Policy framework for comprehensive migration governance in the Kingdom of Eswatini,” he said.
The Acting Chief Immigration Officer explained that the committee would be required to work on the various thematic areas which will cover migration governance, labour migration and education, diaspora engagement, border governance, irregular migration, forced displacement and internal migration.
Mazibuko added that “Improving migration management at a national level has been identified as a priority for the Kingdom of Eswatini. This comes at a time when migration dynamics in the country, region and indeed globally, have become increasingly complex; however, at present in Eswatini there is a severe lack of reliable migration data and analysis on which to base policy formulation and planning.”
The Communications Officer in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mlandvo Dlamini, said the Policy would complement the coordination efforts for the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration (GCM) objectives, as well as the Sustainable Development Goal Target 10.7, and support coherence with other relevant policy areas.
“IOM will support the development of the Migration Policy based on the recently gathered evidence though the Migration Profile that indicated the migration trends in the country. “Furthermore, this policy will help to address one of the gaps identified during the Migration Governance Indicators exercise that highlighted the need for a migration policy for the better management of migration in the country,” said Dlamini.
