EU-IOM Joint Initiative

for Migrant Protection and Reintegration

Across the well-used migration trails to and from the Horn of Africa, migrants usually have to rely only on themselves for survival. There is one exception, however.

Migration Response Centres (MRCs) are often the only available places of safety and assistance for migrants in distress. These are one-stop centres through which governments, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other partners provide life-saving assistance and specialized services.

There are 11 MRCs spread across the East and Horn of Africa, where the vast majority of migrants are motivated by the hope of finding economic opportunities.

Djibouti hosts a busy MRC in the coastal town of Obock, while there are three MRCs in Somalia. Sudan has a centre in its capital Khartoum and in Gedarif. Ethiopia hosts five MRCs in Dire Dawa, Metema, Moyale, Togochale and Semera. The MRCs are strategically located to provide protection and assistance to vulnerable migrants along the Eastern, Northern and Southern migratory routes.

While Sudan is a source, transit and destination country at the centre of multiple migration routes, Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous state and also accounts for the largest migrant movements in the region. Hence the two countries are at the centre of migration governance in the region.

During their journeys, migrants face constant hunger and thirst, along with the lack of many other basic services and security, coupled with the exploitative and abusive practices of smugglers.

Most MRCs in the region provide migrants with medical assistance, psychosocial support, shelter, non-food items such as hygiene items and clothes, and the offer of assisted voluntary return and reintegration. Thus, for stranded migrants MRCs often make the difference between life and death, a factor acknowledged by IOM Deputy Regional Director Justin Macdermott.  

“In 2020, MRCs in the region newly registered and assisted over 8,000 migrants across the region. This signifies the critical role of MRCs as a coordinating mechanism in the delivery of comprehensive services and hence the importance of strong partnerships and stakeholder engagement, including with the government entities, UN agencies, local and international NGOS as well as migrant communities,” Macdermott said.  

On 26 January, over 40 government officials from Ethiopia and Sudan, along with IOM staff came together in a virtual exchange to consider how to strengthen government’s role in the provision of protection and assistance to migrants, including through improved cross-border coordination.

“We hope that the partnership with IOM will culminate in the provision of improved services to migrants from across the African continent. This requires us to coordinate efforts between the centres at the horizontal level and among their government counterparts at the vertical level,” said Abubakar Dahia, Director General of the State Ministry of Social Development in Khartoum, Sudan.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, migrants have borne the brunt of measures aimed at containing the coronavirus, such as border closures. The result is that MRCs have often been the only places available they can turn to for assistance, highlighting the life-changing role played by these centres.

Meselech Assefa, director of the Oversees Employment and Workers Protection and Welfare Directorate of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in Ethiopia, reiterated: “The government of Ethiopia and Sudan should continue to work closely and collaborate to strengthen the coordination across MRCs including through information sharing.”

In this spirit, the participants agreed to strengthen cross-border coordination and collaboration between the two governments in order to enhance protection and assistance to migrants at MRCs and elsewhere.

Other participants from the Government of Ethiopia included representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Federal Attorney General, the Federal Police, the Bureau of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs, and border and immigration authorities. The Government of Sudan was represented via the Khartoum State Ministry of Health, the Counter-Trafficking Unit from the Ministry of Interior, alongside the Khartoum State Ministry for Social Development.

The interaction also saw the intervention of Alseny Soumah, head of the Social Assistance and Resilience Division at the Ministry of Social Action and Children in Conakry, Guinea, who spoke on their experience in establishing and operating an MRC jointly with IOM, and on the transition process to a fully-fledged government-managed and funded MRC. In this regard, participants sought to learn from Guinea on the process of strengthening government ownership in the hope that this will serve as a guide to Ethiopia and Sudan whose goal is to increase government ownership of the centres.  

This government-to-government interaction was supported by the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa, together with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Norwegian Ministry for Justice and Public Security.  

About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative

Launched in December 2016 and funded by the European Union (EU) Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, the programme brings together 26 African countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad region, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa, the EU and IOM around the goal of ensuring that migration is safer, more informed and better governed for both migrants and their communities.