8-10 October 2019 – In partnership with the Southern Africa Immigration Liaison (SAIL) officers based in Pretoria, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) held a three (3) day training for immigration Officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Police Officers and Customs Officials. The training sought ‘to improve knowledges on identifying genuine and fraudulent travel documents and in identifying imposters at Port of Entries (POEs). A total of 53 officers – 28 Immigration Officers, 19 Police Officers and 6 Custom Officers from all the Port of Entries in Lesotho – attended the training.

Delivering Opening remarks on behalf of the Principal Secretary Ministry of Home Affairs, Mrs. Mant’sebo Motsoanakaba, Immigration Director, thanked IOM for supporting this training and indicated that “the Ministry of Home Affairs is moving towards integrated Border Management Approach whereby Police and Customs will also be performing immigration duties."

The training offered an opportunity to the participants to update themselves with relevant technical tools against fraudulent identification.

“As an Immigration Officer, I appreciated the introduction of ICT tools to improve my knowledge in examining different passports from all countries. It will be easier to know an original and fake passport’’ – Masheane Mpopo, Immigration Officer, Maputsoe. “This training has been useful and an eye opener because I did not know anything about identifying possible fraud regarding counterfeit money as this was part of the training. We are going to work differently, this training is going to assist me in taking time to examine documents.” - Mmampa Rakotje, Customs Official, Maseru.

The gathering was also an opportunity to highlight the cross-cutting benefits of managing migration from ports of entries. “The training comes at a time when the world is concerned about irregular migration. This passport issue is critical and we need to protect our borders and travel documents and ensure we boost donor and investor confidence in Lesotho for it will be seen as safe and able to manage its borders.’’ – Sgt. Ret’selisitsoe Maoela, Police Officer, Butha-Buthe.

These trainings were supported through the generous support of the Government of Japan and its people through the project called “Counter Trafficking and Addressing Irregular Migration through Strengthening Border and Migration Management, Sensitization on TIP and Building Capacity of Law enforcement and Border Officials in Lesotho.

For any question on this article, please contact IOM Lesotho enishimura@iom.int or +266 68891296.