Tanzania has made progress towards the ratification of a protocol that will allow free movement of people from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member countries without being required to apply for a visa.
In an interview in Dar es Salaam, an Immigration Department spokesman, Mr Abbas Irovya, said the process leading to the effectual ratification of the protocol in order to make it legally binding would culminate in its being endorsed by the National Assembly.
This development comes as a two day SADC Public Security Subcommittee (PSSC) meeting is going on in Dar es Salaam. The meeting has brought together representatives from the member countries and those from invited states.
“The movement from one country to another will facilitate development activities among the SADC member countries as five of them are reported to have already ratified it.
It requires at least three-quarters of the member states to approve the protocol for it to come into effect,” Irovya explained. Referring to the agenda of the two-day meeting, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mr Mbarak Abdulwakil, said the meeting was of great significance as the region still faced various challenges.
These include illegal migration, human trafficking and smuggling of goods, poaching, overcrowding in prisons/ correctional facilities and the refugee phenomenon which need to be discussed for lasting solutions.
He said such challenges needed joint efforts to overcome them as no single country could surmount them single- handedly since most of them were cross-border in their nature.
The PS further said that delegates to the two-day meeting would also deliberate on various issues which seem to undermine efforts to promote peace and security in the region.
“We cannot talk of having a vibrant and attractive tourism sector when there is unchecked poaching and illegal trade in wildlife products. We must promote public safety and security in the region first after which we can promote the southern African region as a single investment destination,” Abdulwakil said.
For his part, a representative of the SADC Organ on Polities Defence and Security, Mr Advocate Machethe, said public security had to triumph over numerous security threats posed by illegal migration and human trafficking.
By MARGRETH ITALA, Tanzania Daily News
