New UN migration chief to visit Africa on first official trip

The new head of the UN’s migration agency will visit Africa on her first official trip from Sunday to highlight the scale of migration happening around the continent.

Amy Pope, the first woman elected to lead the International Organisation for Migration, will then head to Brussels as the 27-member EU bloc deals with a recent influx of migrant arrivals in Italy.

The American, who took office on October 1, will visit the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, before meeting Ethiopian officials.

She will then travel to Kenya and Djibouti.

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“When we talk about migration in terms of the African continent, it’s recognising that over 80 percent of the migration takes place in Africa,” Pope said at a press briefing in Geneva, at a time when attention is particularly focused on migrants trying to reach Europe.

She also spoke of the large number of African migrants heading for the Gulf, highlighting “very, very troubling reports” about the treatment of migrants there.

“Ensuring that there is better protection and access for migrants to services in that context is important,” she added.

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The treatment of migrant workers who helped build the sites for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar received much publicity worldwide.

The NGO Human Rights Watch more recently accused Saudi border guards of killing hundreds of Ethiopian migrants attempting to enter the country from Yemen.

Riyadh denied the report as “politicised and misleading”.

Pope will aim to discuss with the African Union the best way of guaranteeing the movement of people, in particular to support the free trade agreements promoted by the organisation.