KAMPYONGO

By JAMES KUNDA –
ZAMBIA has urged fellow Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) member states to embrace the free movement of people as a gateway of enhancing social and economic integration in the region.
Home Affairs Minister Stephen Kampyongo said member states should equally embrace migrants as such groups of people also had the potential to help economies grow.
Mr Kampyongo said this when he officially opened a COMESA regional consultative process on migration dialogue meeting, in Lusaka yesterday.
The indaba was held under the theme; ‘Enhancing regional cooperation on migration and mobility through effective governance mechanisms, data and dialogue’.
“Migrants are fellow human beings with inherent rights that cannot be denied to them, we must, therefore manage migration to achieve the successful social and economic integration of our region,” Mr Kampyongo said.
He said there was a need for COMESA states to generate information to allay fears of migration and promote the positive social and economic impacts of the movement of people on the sending and receiving communities.
Mr Kampyongo said the security threats and transitional crimes that may accompany the free movement of people could be managed by countries through investing in security agencies based on research and empirical evidence.
At the same occasion, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Southern Africa regional director Charles Kwenin said the indaba was important to spur the formulation of collective policy reforms aimed at safeguarding the welfare of migrants in the region.
Mr Kwenin said addressing the challenges around human mobility would enable the region forester trade and collaboration on other social and economic matters.
COMESA assistant secretary general Kipyego Cheluget said Zambia was among the first of the 19 COMESA states making significant strides in promoting the free movement of people in the region.