IOM will today inaugurate a new Immigration Office for Djibouti's
National Police and Immigration at the Djibouti-Ethiopia border
post of Gelafi.

The USD 25,000 facility, which is funded by the European
Commission and the United Kingdom, will comprise offices for the
immigration officer in charge of the post, an office for the
processing of entry and exit permits, storage space for immigration
documents, toilet facilities and a generator for electricity power
supply.

Thousands of mostly Ethiopian migrants cross the
Djibouti-Ethiopia border at Gelafi-Hawli en route to Djibouti as
migrant workers. Others use the post to reach Obock in Djibouti,
from where they cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen in small boats in
search of work.

The new border post will help officials to manage migration more
effectively and to address irregular migration and human
trafficking, as well as boosting the morale of staff assigned to
Gelafi, according to IOM programme manager Charles Kwenin.

The upgrading of the post was one of a series of recommendations
made following an IOM technical assessment of border management in
the IGAD region of East Africa. (IGAD – the Intergovernmental
Authority on Development – comprises Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda and Eritrea.)

As a result of the assessment, similar border posts are planned
for Ethiopia at the Ethiopia-Sudan border post at Matema and for
Uganda at the Kenya-Uganda border at Lwakhaka.

For more information please contact:

Charles Kwenin

E-mail: "mailto:ckwenin@iom.int" target="_blank" title=
"">ckwenin@iom.int