South African Youths Visit Ethiopia to Better Understand Migration Dynamics

September 6/2019 The International Organization for Migration (IOM) Mission in South Africa this week is supporting an educational visit for students to the African Union Commission (AUC) in Addis Ababa.
The move is as part of the organization’s efforts to increase awareness of migration as a key driver in the development agenda, according to the IOM press release.

 The visit is also a culmination of preparatory work dating back to the Mkhaya Migrant Award Essay Competition of 2016. 

The seven student winners of the essay competition, an initiative by South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in response to the xenophobic attacks of 2015, represent the country’s provincial universities.

The students are in Addis Ababa to gain an insight on the dynamics that inform policy decision making processes on the continent, with a special focus on migration governance.

They are accompanied by officials from IOM, South Africa’s DHA and the Department of Social Development (DSD). 

The students have visited the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Peace and Security Studies (IPSS) as well as IOM's Special Liaison Office in Ethiopia to gain insight on  multilateralism.

They are accompanied by officials from IOM, South Africa’s DHA and the Department of Social Development (DSD).

IOM Chief of Mission in Ethiopia, Maureen Achieng said “despite the bleak backdrop against which this visit is taking place, it was planned months ago”.

He added that “I come out of it heartened by the genuine interest I sense on the part of the Government of South Africa and the youth from that country to understand better the continental migration dynamics, and how the vexed phenomenon that is migration could be better managed for the benefit of host countries and of the migrants themselves in South Africa.”