African Union Inaugural Workshop for Stakeholders of the Continental Operational Centre in Sudan begins

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The African Union Commission Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development (HHS), Labour, Employment and Migration Division (LEM) is organizing a 3-day “Inaugural Workshop for Stakeholders of the Continental Operational Centre in Sudan” (the Khartoum Centre), from 28-30 September 2022 in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

The purpose of the Centre is to improve the overall migration governance regime in Africa, focusing on addressing irregular migration and other transnational organized crimes.

The Centre has the following objectives:

1. To provide a platform for sharing information on transnational organized crime, in particular human trafficking and migrant smuggling.
2. To build the capacity of Member States in the areas of border management/border governance and combating transnational organized crime, with a special focus on irregular migration.

In his remarks during the official opening of the workshop, Mr. Peter Mudungwe, Senior Technical Adviser – Migration Governance & Liaison within the HHS on behalf of the Director for Social Development, Culture & Sport of the AU Commission, Mme Cisse Mariama Mohamed, highlighted the importance of the workshop in the operationalization of the centre. “This workshop marks a critical step in the process of preparing the 5 year strategic plan of the Khartoum Centre. With your support as the primary stakeholders of the Centre, together we can develop a centre that will evolve into a continental leader in its mandated area of work,” said Mr Peter Mudungwe. He further noted that the AU Commission and Member States have made a commitment to manage migration in a coherent manner and to work towards improving the migration governance architecture across the Continent.

In conclusion, Mr. Peter Mudungwe reiterated the Commission’s commitment in addressing migration issues on the Continent in a holistic and systematic manner. He underlined the significance of the workshop in operationalising the centre. “Since the Khartoum Centre has a continental mandate, your task in this meeting is of immense Continental significance, and we at the AU Commission delight in your taking time to participate in our combined effort to address one of the issues that is of national, continental and global significance,” said Peter Mudungwe.

During the opening ceremony, the Government of Zimbabwe’s Permanent Secretary for Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, Mr A. D. T. Nhepera, expressed his gratitude to the AU Commission choosing Zimbabwe to host the workshop and emphasized the support of Zimbabwe for AU efforts to fully operationalize the Khartoum Centre. He noted that the Malabo Summit on Terrorism and Violent Extremism in May 2022 made a call to renew partnership, including sharing of intelligence and institutional capacity building, which is in line with mandate of the Khartoum Centre. He added that “Human trafficking and migrant smuggling are real and there is a need for cooperation regionally and continentally”.

The workshop brought together major source, transit and destination countries of irregular migrants, Members of the Bureau of the AU Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Migration, Refugees & IDPs, regional police chiefs coordinating bodies, the Committee of Intelligence & Security Services of Africa, AFRIPOL, INTERPOL  and Technical experts from the African Union Commission.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).