The Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) has authorised a 10 year detailed plan to contrivance the protocol on visa-free movement of people in member states.
The decision was recently reached at a high-level legal and policy expert meeting of the regional body held in Entebbe, Kampala and was endorsed by the Igad committee of ambassadors and ministers in charge of migration and labour.
Upon adoption by the region’s summit, the plan will ease cross-border mobility for its 270 million people, improve regional economic integration and development.
The 10year road map is awaiting approval by the Igad Council of Ministers and Assembly. The report also said the roadmap needed to be validated by the experts of member states and then submitted to the Igad Council of Ministers and the Assembly as annex to the Protocol.
Currently, nationals of the eight Igad member states require visas to travel around the region, but experts say after the 10-year implementation of the roadmap will do away with this.
“We are embarking on a historic journey for our region. This process of implementation will be long but very significant,” said Fathia Alwan, the Igad director of social development.
Igad member states include Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.For Kenya and Uganda, the adjustment will be easy as they already apply visa-free travel under different trading blocs such as the EAC and the Comesa that they are members of.
Nationals of Igad member states require visas to travel to the bloc’s countries, which constrains mobility – an issue that the region has been working to remove for four years since 2017, according to Lucy Daxbacher, the senior immigration expert in Djibouti.
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