CAIRO- April 26th -The International Organization for Migration (IOM)’s Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa is organizing a workshop between April 26th and 27th in Cairo bringing government, UN and civil society representatives from Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia together to discuss good and innovative migrants’ protection policies and practices that were adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and exchange lessons learnt.

The workshop, titled “Protecting Vulnerable Groups - Lessons Learnt and Promising Practices from the COVID-19 Pandemic”, comes as part of IOM’s effort to map good and innovative protection policies and practices that emerged during the pandemic to draw lessons learnt and advocate for better inclusion of migrants in national protection future programming and strategies.

“The COVID-19 pandemic brought its challenges, but it also brought good and innovative practices taken by governments and civil society in the region to ensure the protection of vulnerable groups including migrants,” said Mr. Othman Belbeisi, IOM MENA Regional Director. “It is very important thus to bring together stakeholders from the region to share and exchange lessons and experiences so that we are better prepared for the future,” he added.

Mobility restrictions and lockdown measures taken to reduce the transmission of the virus created significant challenges throughout North Africa, including the loss of income and livelihood opportunities, decreased access to essential basic and health services, heightened risk of exposure to gender-based violence (GBV) and instances of discrimination and stigmatization. 

Initial evaluation indicates that migrants have been disproportionately affected by both the direct effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictive measures put into place to contain the virus. However, promising protection practices targeting migrants also emerged from the pandemic. Most importantly, the pandemic highlighted the crucial importance of inclusive, comprehensive, and stable protection systems and the concept of ‘leaving no one behind’.

Concluding the 28-month project “Regional Response to COVID-19 in North African Countries”, the workshop aims at presenting an overview of adaptation of national policies and migrants’ protection measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in North Africa, collecting and formulating recommendations on how to apply the identified lessons learnt and good practices to improve the protection for migrants in future policies and protection programs.

Discussions will address issues like access to health services, social protection, access to basic services, protecting jobs, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises and informal sector workers as part of economic recovery, border management and mobility access, strengthening multilateral collaboration and regional responses and promoting social cohesion and investing in community-led resilience and response systems.

In line with “whole of society” approach, participants in the workshop represent relevant national authorities, civil society actors and international organizations including those working on emergency response, sustainable development, risk management, social protection, food systems, health, human settlements, finance, entrepreneurship, migration, displacement, relocation, and other related fields. 

The outcomes of the workshop will contribute to the final mapping report on the ‘‘good and innovative protection policies and practices for migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The workshop is organized as part of the “Regional Response to COVID-19 in North African Countries” Programme funded by the European Union and implemented by IOM. 

   
For more information, please contact Mr. Tamim Elyan at telyan@iom.int.