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Daniel Chigunwe

Herald Correspondent

Zimbabwe has reaffirmed its commitment to championing migration as a tool for development through the judicious implementation of declarations under the Global Compact on Migration (GCM).

Zimbabwe joined the two-day Second Regional Review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia last week.

The event brought together governments and stakeholders from 54 African countries to assess the progress made in implementing the GCM since its adoption in 2018.

Addressing member states, Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe said major strides that have been undertaken by the Second Republic under President Mnangagwa in guaranteeing the protection of migrants’ human rights.

“Zimbabwe has successfully decentralsed its civil registry system in every province to ensure access for all. Zimbabwe has gone further to establish state of the art Civil Registration Centres beyond our borders in countries with relatively significant population of Zimbabwean migrants, such as South Africa,” he said.

“Zimbabweans in the diaspora will now have access to birth certificates, national identity cards and e-passports which serve as enablers for regular migration as they give them capacity to acquire permits, visas and rights of entry at cross borders.

“This program is being rolled out to all countries hosting Zimbabwe diaspora populations.”

He also indicated that Zimbabwe had carried out mobile registration exercises targeting remote borderline communities resulting in the successful registration of over 10 000 families of the third generation nationals from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia who by operation of law could not claim their nationality of origin.

Minister Kazembe also explained how Zimbabwe is implementing a robust integrated Online Border Management System (OBMS) as part of efforts to enhance efforts to entrench human rights-based border governance which guarantee protections to migrant.

“The absence of ICT technologies and related infrastructure at borders to manage migration to enhance the capacity of member states to profile, monitor and account for the movement of persons into and out of their jurisdictions thereby mitigating security challenges is a major threat to the implementation of the Free Movement of Persons in Africa. This must be addressed. “

It is against this background that Zimbabwe has embarked on robust integrated Online Border Management System covering every Zimbabwe Border Post regardless of location.

The system is at an advanced stage of deployment with Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport at 80 percent completion and this will be installed at all major border posts by December 2025.

”Through border modernisation programmes, Zimbabwe has also witnessed the upgrading of Victoria Fall International Airport, Beitbridge Border Post and the Chirundu One Border Posts into world class borders.

In its pursuit of seamless borders, Zimbabwe has earmarked Forbes Border Post, Nyamapanda Border Post, Victoria Falls Border Post and Plumtree Border Post for upgrades to become One-Stop-Border-Posts.

“This integrated border management system coupled with internal smart monitoring systems will capacitate government to monitor and account for migrants as well as citizens thereby creating a conducive environment for the free movement of persons,” he said.