14 Aug 2014

Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Ikwatlhaeng Bagopi has appealed to stakeholders to address challenges emanating  from cross border migration

Speaking at the youth cross border workshop in Kasane recently, Mr Bagopi noted that some of the emerging cross border challenges included human trafficking, migration, child labour, sex work, and sexual exploitation, which he said were gaining momentum and increasingly being noticed internationally.

“These challenges negatively impact on the lives of both young and communities living along the border areas,” he said.

Mr Bagopi noted that the latest United Nations Youth Report of 2013 estimated that there were 232 million international migrants worldwide, representing 3.2 per cent of the world’s total population of 7.2 billion.“Of those, 35 million of them are under the age of 20 with 40 million between the ages of 20 and 29,” he explained.

The total of these two groups account for more than 30 per cent of all migrants, he said.

He said  as a way of integrating youth issues into their own functions and operations into their ministry, they embarked on the programme.

Mr Bagopi noted that it was difficult to realise development without migration from rural to urban settings and vice versa.

“It would be impossible to achieve modernisation without cross border or international migration, but the challenge is the impact that these processes have on the youth and communities of origin, transit and destination, which have potential to compromise their integrity and self-worth,” he said.

Mr Bagopi added that close to 50 per cent of migrants were women and girls, adding that hence migration could be gender specific.

The district coordinator for FHi 360 Mr Thotheletso Modise also agreed that youth along the border areas can be negatively affected by migration.

“Chobe being tourism focused attracts a lot of people from all over Botswana who come here looking for work and business opportunities and such they have to compete for these opportunities with the locals,” he said.

He added that as such, they had to make sure that they came up with programmes that help safeguard the interests of the local populace.

Some of the objectives of the workshop were to raise awareness on emerging issues of cross border mobility of young people as well as engaging relevant stakeholders for building and strengthening of partnerships and collaboration for programme implementation. ENDS