By Majirata Latela
A project on the socio-economic reintegration of refugees was launched in Maseru last week following the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and the influx of Basotho migrant workers.
When launching the project, the minister of social development, ‘Matebatso Doti said efforts at the reintegration of retrenched Basotho migrants’ mineworkers began in the early 1980s when Lesotho requested the International Labour Organisation’s assistance to design programmes that would create employment opportunities for the anticipated mass repatriation of Lesotho citizens from the South African mines by the apartheid regime.
“Reports have shown that retrenchments from SA mines have grown over the years, prompting the government to come up with interventions to mitigate possible negative impacts of the retrenchments on ex-mineworkers, their dependents and communities in which they live back home,” Doti said.
For her part, the head officer of the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM), Eriko Nishimura, said the project has a possibility of transforming people’s lives in a powerful manner if the piloting goes well.
“Since 2017, IOM has been sensitising communities on the risk of irregular migration and its consequences. However, the challenge has been with poor families who do not have money, skills and education, as well as the high unemployment rate in the country.
“With this project we are launching, I am very excited as we will be able to address those very root causes which were the push factors for irregular migration,” she said.
