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7 April 2021 -. Holili, Tanzania – IOM, through its African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC), organized a half day training in Holili, Tanzania, as part of the official launch of its multi-country project (Enhancing African Member States Border Personnel's Capacities to Respond to and Mitigate the Spread of Public Health Events including Covid-19).  The project, targeting border officials from Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and the United Republic of Tanzania, aims to provide border officials in the target countries with the necessary tools to minimize the spread of the Novel coronavirus at Points of Entry (PoE).

The 15 border officials participating to the event were trained on the Standard Operating Procedures for Front-line Border Officials at the Point of Entry in Response to Public Health Outbreak developed by IOM and aimed at providing essential guidance on operational safety measures intended to support the efforts of Governments in implementing National Preparedness and Response Plan on Public Health Events including COVID-19.

“Today's training will add to our ability to respond to public health events. Not only will it help us better protect and serve our customers, but it will also contribute to our efforts to protecting our staff, our families and our communities”, Mr. Michael Mtoba, Head of Immigration at Holili-Taveta, said in his opening remarks.

Neil Roberts, ACBC Senior Migration Management and Trainer, encouraged the Head of Immigration at Holili-Taveta to adopt this SoP in a manner consistent with the procedures in place at the border to effectively manage cross-border mobility between Tanzania and Kenya.

Procedures for dealing with migrants in the event of a pandemic, as well as measures to be taken in the event of suspected or confirmed cases of a disease, were of key importance to the participants.

In view of the restrictions in force, the other beneficiary countries of this project will benefit from e-learning courses, as part of the Centre's new approach to capacity building and thanks to the funding the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, through its Repatriation and Departure Service (R&DS).

 

For more information, please contact:

Neil Roberts at nroberts@iom.int

Melissa Tui at mtui@iom.int