By Staff Writer
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the Border Police Directorate at the South Sudan National Police Service has held its first ever consultation seminar aimed at developing border management and security strategy.
The policy comprises of three deliverables. These include consultative sessions particularly workshops, in-depth interviews with key stakeholders especially the governments, migrants, humanitarian actors and expert groups.
It also consists of field assessments for selected border areas and validation workshops of the first draft strategy that informs the government’s actions on border management and security.
“The general purpose of border management is to ensure duly authorized, legitimate, safe, secure and efficient cross-border movement or transit of people, goods, conveyances, services and capital,” said Peter Van Der Auweraert, the IOM Chief of Mission, for South Sudan in a statement issued on Thursday.
“It is critical to take into consideration current context and to foresee the benefits of well-managed borders for the welfare of South Sudanese and migrants” he added.
Border officials play a main role to facilitate migration, identify victims of trafficking, assist them and initiate investigations against the traffickers, according to Janika Walter, the Head of Cooperation at the Germany Embassy in Juba.
She revealed that the strategy would contribute to improved cross-border relations not only with neighboring countries but also address transnational organized crimes, foster economic cooperation, peaceful and organized neighborhoods.
The event held on Tuesday in Juba was part of IOM’s overall support to the government under the Better Migration Management programmme funded by the European Union and Germany.
It brought together relevant border management and border security officials from key government entities.
“This is the first of a series of consultative workshops aim to identify government’s needs and expectations on the development of the strategy to present findings of a desktop literature review and assessment of other polices and legislation pertaining to border management related to South Sudan” the statement partly reads.
The Inspector General of Police appreciated the support from IOM, the European Union and government of Germany.
However, he urged the partners to double their efforts in solidifying peace and service delivery to South Sudanese.
The overall objective for the programmme is to address migration, enable national authorities and institutions to facilitate safe, orderly, and regular migration and to effectively address and reduce human trafficking and smuggling of migrants within and from the Horn of Africa region using a human rights-based approach.
It also supports civil society organizations to increase protection and assistance for vulnerable migrants who are often exposed to violence, enslavement or exploitation.
The Better Migration Management Programme is a regional, multi-year and partner programmme, funded by the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
It is implemented by British Council, Civipol, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) and IOM.
BMM covers Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.
