By Moses Nyirenda

Lilongwe, August 10, Mana: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Malawi says it is committed to enhancing safe migration pathways for local as well as international migrants.

Speaking on the sidelines of a consultative Workshop, which IOM Malawi organized in Lilongwe recently together with its partners IOM Malawi Head of Programme Support, Alina Zalewski said with their move among other things they want to make sure that the migrants are protected.

 “We want to ensure that Malawians and all migrants that are coming into Malawi as well as Malawians going abroad have safe access and safe pathways so that they remain protected and not exploited.

“The exploitation that I am talking about includes; smuggling of migrants or trafficking in persons and we want to ensure that these things should not happen in Malawi,” Zalewski said.

She added that as an organization they want also to help government in disaster risk management by building sustainable resilience interventions so that people should not be forced to move due to impacts of natural disasters.

She also said that as IOM they want also to work with the Ministry of Homeland Security in framing migration policy and national labor migration policy in order for the policies to effectively control migration to directly link with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Zalewski further said that IOM also wants to facilitate the implementation of Global Compact for Migration (GCM) in the country in order to strengthen the country’s migration governance, which includes the enhancement of access to safe migration pathways.

According to her, with their commitment they want to assist government to use migration as an opportunity that would harness potential for boosting the country’s economic growth.

In his comment Ministry of Homeland Security, Principal Secretary Steve Kayuni hailed IOM for its commitment in helping government in migration management especially on regular migration.

“Regular migration is the most crucial thing that is of concern, but IOM is helping to make things move forward,” he said.