Nairobi (Kenya), 1 July 2020 - The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) recently signed a funding agreement to the value of EUR 6,5 million for UNODC to continue as implementing partner of the second phase of the Better Migration Management (BMM) programme from 2020-2022. This follows the successful implementation of phase 1 of the BMM programme between 2016-2019.
More than 10 million people in and around the Horn of Africa have been forcibly displaced within their own countries or are seeking refuge in neighbouring states. In the absence of effective and regularised migration mechanisms and infrastructure, smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons are widespread, resulting in the exploitation, violation, and death of countless people from across the region.
In this regard, the BMM programme aims to improve the management of safe, orderly and regular migration in the region and will continue to support national authorities in addressing the smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons within and from the Horn of Africa. However, countering and prosecuting the criminal networks responsible for trafficking and smuggling of people require effective legislation, criminal justice capacity, and cooperation between countries of origin, transit and destination.
As implementing partner and as guardian of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and its supplementary Protocols, in particular the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children and Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, UNODC will focus extensively on supporting Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda in two key areas: First, to align their national legislation on trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants with the provisions of the Convention and Protocols, and secondly, to enhance the capacity of criminal justice practitioners to effectively investigate and prosecute trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants cases with a victim-centred and human rights-based approach, including though international cooperation in criminal matters.
The EUR 35 million-programme, funded by the European Union (EU) Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is being implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), British Council, CIVIPOL, UNODC, and GIZ as lead implementing partner. UNODC is implementing BMM programme activities through its Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA) in Nairobi, Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa (ROMENA) in Egypt and its Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Section (HTMSS) in Vienna.
