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Reception
and support centre to open in February 2006 for Zimbabwean deportees
International
Organization for Migration (IOM)
January 09, 2006
ZIMBABWE - The
Minister for Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Hon Nicholas
Goche, will be visiting Beitbridge along with his South African
counterpart, the Minister for Labour, the Hon. Membathisi Mdladlana
and high ranking officers from their respective Ministries to witness
progress being made on the construction of the Beitbridge Reception
and Support Centre, a project being implemented by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Republics
of both Zimbabwe and South Africa are member states of the IOM,
an intergovernmental organisation based in Switzerland, which provides
assistance to member states in the management of a wide variety
of migration issues.
The Beitbridge
Reception and Support Centre will be used to receive Zimbabweans
who are deport4ed form South African and provide them with humanitarian
assistance according to certain criteria of vulnerability. In 2005,
almost 50,000 Zimbabweans were deported from South Africa, according
to ZRP Officer in Charge, Chief Inspector Clever Ntini (The Chronicle,
4th January 2006), up from 45,000 in 2004.
The deportations
have led to a number of social problems in Beitbridge, partly caused
by the Zimbabweans returning with insufficient funds to make their
way back to their homes, and consequently being stranded and hungry
in Beitbridge.
The Ministries
are also interested in regularising the situation of Zimbabwean
workers on farms in South Africa, so that the process be more orderly
and controlled, allowing Zimbabweans to work with legal protection
and with access to other social benefits. This follows the signing
of an agreement between the two Governments that provides for Zimbabweans
to work legally on South African farms in Limpopo Province.
The IOM has
appealed to donors for more funds to address these and other migration
issues that have been concerning the Government of Zimbabwe, and
in which IOM’s proven expertise in the field can be of active assistance.
The Centre is
expected to be operational in February 2006.
For more detailed
information, please contact Nicola Simmonds,
IOM Public Information Officer:
Tel: + 263 4 335044.
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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