By Staff Reporter
The Government of Ethiopia has applauded the work that Malawi government through the Ministry of Homeland Security are doing in making sure that those caught human trafficking are brought to justice
Ethiopia’s Minster of Justice Mr. Belayhun Yirga said this during a meeting he had with Dr. Kenneth Zikhale Reeves, Malawi’s Minister for Homeland Security on ways to jointly combat and suppress crimes of trafficking in person and smuggling of migrants.
The two ministers held the discussions during the second review meeting of the implementation of the Global Compact on Migration which took place on October 9 & 10, 2024 at Skylight Hotel in Addis Ababa.
During the discussion, HE Mr. Belayun Yirga indicated that Ethiopian migrants using the Southern Migration Route are subjected to great suffering, exploitation, and death by human traffickers, and smugglers in transit countries and their final destination South Africa.
HE Mr. Belayun noted the migration of a considerable number of Ethiopians yearly via a network of human traffickers extending from the central and southern parts of Ethiopia along Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique all the way to South Africa, and expressed enormous gratitude to the people and Government of Malawi for saving the lives of Ethiopian migrants that ended up in their territory from traffickers and for allowing them to stay in their country.
H.E State Minister further remarked that ‘’ the Government of Ethiopia appreciates and recognizes the measures that the Government of the Republic of Malawi is taking in making sure human traffickers and smugglers are brought to justice”, and further stated that going forward they will cooperate with Malawi on the protection of the rights of Ethiopian migrants, their return home, as well as legal matters and joint criminal investigation.
On his part, Minister for Homeland Security of the Republic of Malawi Dr Zikhale Ng’oma while mentioning the longstanding strong relationship between the two countries from the time of Emperor Haile Selassie, expressed great pleasure in reaffirming his acceptance of the FDRE Ministry of Justice’s request to cooperate and work together with Malawi’s Government.
Dr Zikhale has expressed great appreciation for the recognition by HE Mr. Belayhun of Malawi’s treatment of Ethiopian migrants and its efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The Minister noted that a memorandum of understanding could be signed between the two countries for a regular engagement to prevent and control the criminal activities and in realization of this he called for the FDRE Ministry of Justice and Embassy of the Republic of Malawi in Addis Ababa to work closely together.
Speaking on the occasion, the Ambassador of the Republic of Malawi to Ethiopia HE Kester Ephraim Kaphaizi, reaffirmed the Embassy’s commitment to make the necessary engagements with the FDRE Ministry of Justice based on directions given by the Minister for Homeland Security.
Head of the Secretariat for the National Partnership Coalition for Migration Mr Abraham Ayalew who attended the ministerial discussions observed that the discussions created the opportunity to implement his office’s plan in the current budget year to organize bilateral and multilateral interstate dialogues with transit and destination countries along the southern migration route.
