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IOM Ghana's Chief of Mission, Sylvia Lopez-Ekra, spoke at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration in Accra on Thursday while delivering a welcome address at the ceremony. opening of an advocacy, awareness and support program on implementation. of the ECOWAS national biometric card.
The program is organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, ECOWAS and IOM.
It aims, in particular, to sensitize the citizens of the subregion to various regional instruments on freedom of movement or migration.
The IOM Chef de Mission thanked the Government of Ghana and ECOWAS for organizing the meeting.
Regarding the situation of migration in the world, she said: "We live in a time of unprecedented human mobility."
Today, she said, one in seven is a migrant.
She therefore noted the need to protect migrants.
In Africa, she said, young people risk their lives across the Mediterranean to reach Europe.
According to her, young women are deceived by some travel agencies in their quest for domestic jobs abroad.
"Our newspapers and our television are full of stories of abuse," she said.
The need to protect all migrants crossing the ECOWAS region is crucial, she said.
ECOWAS officials, civil society and the media, she said, have a role to play in raising public awareness of free movement in the region.
She said that migration has always been and always will be; "He is here to stay and will always be part of the world we live in"
Migration is necessary for socio-economic development and growth, she said, adding that migration is desirable when it is well governed.
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