Moshi, The United Republic of Tanzania
— On 25 October, The IOM African Capacity Building Centre (ACBC) and IOM The Gambia in partnership with the Government of the Republic of The Gambia is today, starting a three days training for border agencies on the Prevention, Response and Mitigation of Communicable diseases in line with the International Health Regulation (2005) and the IOM Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM) for eleven officials with border management functions from the Government of the Republic of the Gambia including Health, Immigration and Customs officials among others.
The training, hosted under the auspices of the IOM ACBC project, “Enhancing Border Personnel’s Capacities to Respond to and Mitigate the Spread of COVID-19” with funding support from the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is aimed at integrating health into the responsibilities of immigration and customs by strengthening the integrated border management approach at the points of entry (PoE) to address the mobility dimensions of public health threats while ensuring that affected and at-risk populations benefit from appropriate and timely support through promoting the whole of government and whole of society approaches in preventing, responding and mitigating the spread of communicable diseases.
In his welcome remarks, Mr. Jonathan Martens, the IOM ACBC Centre Manager and Senior Trainer, welcomed Commissioner Gassama and the delegation and introduced the ACBC as “their Centre”, having been established at the request of the IOM African Member States in 2009 to strengthen migration management capacities on the Continent. Mr. Martens noted that the Centre had facilitated training and other capacity development initiatives for more than 8,000 government officials in all 54 of IOM’s African Member States since 2009, and that border management themes had always been a priority focus. He added that the ACBC was also increasingly responsive to Member State requests for capacity development in international law and human rights protection, maritime security and search and rescue, labour migration, and health. Mr. Martens concluded his remarks by wishing the delegation an informative and productive working visit.
In his opening remarks, Commissioner Ebrima Jahateh, Head of The Gambia delegation expressed optimism that, “The training will enhance border agencies knowledge and skills to prevent, respond and mitigate communicable diseases including infection prevention and control amongst frontline border officials who are key in facilitating cross border human mobility and trade”. Further, Commissioner Jahateh said, “it is important that we reflect on the occurrence of COVID-19, a pandemic that took the world by surprises: when not much preparedness and readiness was centre stage to avert and mitigate threats imminent to health workers as well as border officials. Commissioner Jahateh expressed appreciation to the Government of The Kingdom of The Netherlands’ financial support for the project being implemented by the IOM in the participating states including in the Gambia”.
The Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ Ministry of Justice and Security, Directorate of Repatriation and Departure Services (R&DS) says that, “the R&DS is delighted to be in partnership with IOM Tanzania through the IOM ACBC and project participating states namely: The Republic of Angola, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of The Gambia, The Republic of Guinea, The Republic of Liberia, The Republic of Sierra Leone and the United Republic of Tanzia, and financially supporting the IOM ACBC project, “Enhancing African Member States Border Personnel’s Capacities to Respond to and Mitigate the Spread of Communicable Diseases” and the R&DS hopes that officials will leverage knowledge and skills gained during the training to better manage communicable diseases while facilitating cross-border mobility and trade.
“In support for national efforts to integrated border management practices to advance migration governance in the country. It is envisaged that once trained, the various border officials will deploy the knowledge and skills to address the mobility dimensions of public health threats while ensuring that affected and at-risk populations benefit from appropriate and timely support, through inclusive and rights-based approaches that leave no one behind in line with International Health Regulation (IHR 2005) and the IOM Health, Border and Mobility Management (HBMM)’’ said Stephen Matete, IOM Program Coordinator, Migration Management.
For more information, please contact Mr. Mpilo Nkomo, IOM African Capacity Building Centre [Tel: +255(0)785736072, Email: mnkomo@iom.int] or Stephen Matete , IOM The Gambia (Tel: +220 3303175, Email: smatete@iom.int).