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International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) launches safe migration campaign
Taurai Maduna, Kubatana.net
January 24, 2006
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the IOM's Passport To Safe Migration
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  "Everyone
spoke about Johannesburg, eGoli, and said that everything here was
so beautiful, the buildings and everything . . . I also thought
everybody would have formal jobs. I didn't expect to find people
selling vegetables in the streets", said Miriam Moyo* in
an interview with the The Sunday Independent of South Africa
in January.
Miriam is one
of the many people that cross the crocodile infested Limpopo River
risking life and limb to seek a better life in South Africa.
With inflation
at more than 600% and unemployment at more than 70%, many Zimbabweans
feel there is no reason to stay in the country because their future
is so bleak!
A total of 2000
Zimbabweans are deported every week from South Africa, according
to Nicola Simmons, Information and Communications Officer for the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Zimbabwe which
recently launched a multimedia information campaign aimed at reducing
the risks linked to irregular migration and HIV/AIDS.
IOM is an organisation
based in Geneva that looks after migrant people who have been displaced
either by accident or emergencies as well as political and economic
reasons.
Ms Simmons said
the campaign called Safe Journey is meant to raise people’s
awareness of the risks and realities of migration. She adds the
main objective is to encourage people to travel legally and for
those that do not travel legally, to advise them on how to be careful.
- listen
to audio file. The
campaign includes billboards, posters, as well as radio and television
programmes featuring testimonies in English, Shona and Ndebele from
migrants.
 The
campaign also includes a "Passport to Safe Migration"
which is a guide for a potential migrant. Some of the information
in the passport includes what a passport is, what a visa is and
how one applies for a visa. The passport also explains what irregular
migration is and what the risks are.
A musical album
featuring some of Zimbabwe’s prominent musicians is also part of
the campaign. Musicians on the album include Dudu Manhenga, Chiwoniso
Maraire, Afrika Revenge, Pastor G and Oliver Mtukudzi amongst others.
Fambai Zvakana - listen
to the song
is a song urging people to travel safely with all their documents
in hand. All the artists featured on the album perform the song.
Other songs on the album include Oliver Mtukudzi’s Todii,
about HIV/AIDS, and Dino Mudondo’s Ndichakumirira, a song
about a guy whose girlfriend is out of the country saying he will
wait for her to return home.
The musical
album will be distributed to truck drivers and radio stations. Testimonies
of migrants as well as interviews with musicians featured on the
album will be aired on National FM - listen
to the testimonies.
The campaign
also focuses on HIV/AIDS prevention in border towns, which have
a large concentration of migrants. Some of these migrants who may
have been deported or are planning to migrate sometimes end up getting
into prostitution as a means of raising money. Truck drivers have
also been targeted in the campaign because they come into contact
with many migrants in their travels. It is hoped that by being more
informed the truck drivers can pass on information about HIV/AIDS
to.
Early this year,
IOM in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare visited the Beitbridge Reception and Support Centre
which is under construction and scheduled to operate in February.
The reception centre will offer humanitarian assistance to those
who have been deported and efforts are underway to regularise Zimbabwean
workers on farms in South Africa.
The signing
of an agreement between the Zimbabwean and South African governments
will result in Zimbabwean farm workers in South Africa being granted
work permits, legal protection and access to social benefits.
In the coming
months, IOM-Zimbabwe will be conducting road shows in border towns
where they screen films on migration and HIV/AIDS as well play music
from the safe journey music album.
*Not her
real name.
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sheet
Audio File
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