Uganda Signs Free Movement of Persons Protocol within the IGAD
By Our reporter
Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu, the Executive Secretary of IGAD (R), poses with Gen. Jeje Odongo shortly after the signing ceremony in Kampala. COURTESY PHOTO/IGAD SECRETARIA
KAMPALA – Uganda has signed the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) protocol that allows free movement in and out of citizens of the countries of the East and Horn of Africa region.
The protocol on free movement of persons is enshrined in the 1996 agreement establishing the IGAD, where it calls upon member states to deepen regional integration through, creating a regime of free movement of persons and right of residence among other things.
Republic of Sudan, the Republic of South Sudan, the Federal Republic of Somalia, and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, are members of IGAD including Uganda the host of the signing ceremony held on May 14 at Serena International Conference Centre, Kampala.
After signing, the protocol got Uganda’s backing with intensions to facilitate the safe and orderly movement of its citizens and those of the IGAD bloc.
Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gen. Jeje Odongo, told the delegates, “IGAD member states are “actually late” in implementing the protocol on free movement of citizens within the bloc.”
“When the IGAD was founded in 1986, there were instructions to implement this protocol,” Gen. Odongo said, “To take action so many years after that instruction is a little late but they say ‘better late than never,” he further explained,
Gen. Odongo said Uganda made signing the protocol a priority because the African Union designated President Yoweri Museveni as a “champion of regional integration” which is an aspiration of the continental organisation.
“We must look at all instruments, look at all possibilities to bring us together so that we can be able to trade amongst ourselves, work peacefully amongst ourselves and be able to move labour across borders with ease,” he said.
It now remains to be seen how Gen. Odongo’s lofty rhetoric and President Museveni’s distinction as a Pan-Africanist will translate into the free movement of people in the IGAD region.
The IGAD bloc comprises eight countries from the Horn and eastern part of Africa, namely; Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea. Uganda becomes the fifth IGAD member to sign the Protocol. That leaves Djibouti, Eritrea and Kenya to approve the protocol.
Uganda’s signing of the IGAD Protocol comes six years since the African Union Free Movement of Persons protocol was endorsed by the continental apex organization. It also comes 11 years since the East African heads of state signed an agreement for the removal of mobility restrictions of citizens in 2013.
To date, although citizens of Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda can cross borders using their national identity cards, Tanzania and Burundi require them to present a passport.
There is optimism around Uganda’s signing of the IGAD protocol because it comes on the back of a slew of state initiatives towards free mobility of people. The Africa Visa Openness Report 2022 showed that 27% of all intra-African travel routes require no visa at all for citizens of African countries. This is up from 25% in 2021 and 20% in 2016. In 2022, 24 African countries (over 40%) offered eVisas to Africans, up from nine African countries in 2016.
Then there has been the push around the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) to reduce barriers to Africans crossing African borders. Lately, also Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have made moves that signal increased openness to free movement of citizens. These countries now offer right of residence and right to work for their citizens across the three states.
The event saw the signing by Hon. Gen. Abubaker Jeje Odongo; Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Uganda, as the protocol signatory.
And was witnessed by Colonel Idriss Djama Guirreh; representing the IGAD Chair, Republic of Djibouti, H.E. Dr. Workneh Gebeyehu; the Executive Secretary of IGAD, Hon. Balam Barugahare; Minister of State for Gender, Labour and Social Development in charge of Youth and Children; Hon. Jackson Kafuzi; Deputy Attorney General and Minister of State for Justice and Constitutional Affairs, H.E. Gullaume Chartrain; Deputy Head of EU Delegation to Uganda, Mme. Fathia Alwan; Director of the IGAD Health and Social Development Division, as well as high-level representation from the IGAD Secretariat and IGAD Member States.
The event was also witnessed by representatives from partners, namely the ILO, IOM, and Platform for Disaster Displacement (PDD) Geneva, Switzerland.
Why fear of free mobility?
The IGAD bloc straddles a geographical area of about 5.2 million sq. km and has a population of about 300 million people. The bloc has been described as an area of “people on the move” by the ‘The State of Migration in East and Horn of Africa Report 2022’ that was published in May 2023.
Launched by the Kenyan government in partnership with IGAD, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of the UN, and the East African Community (EAC), the report was the first comprehensive study on mobility dimensions of regional integration in the East and Horn of Africa.
The report pointed out that while much research focuses on migration from Africa to other regions, notably to Europe and North America, there is actually considerable movement of people within the IGAD region.
It noted that in 2020, 68% of the 13 million emigrants from the region moved to another country in Africa. Of these, 57% (7.5 million) lived in the IGAD region. “This indicates that the largest movement of people takes place within the region and the continent,” the report said.
The report further noted that migration and mobility trends in the region are highly complex because 87% of the 8.5 million international migrants in the region originated from the region.
People moving to work represent a key component of the mobility, with 4.7 million migrant workers. But 22.3 million persons are displaced persons, including 16.9 million internally displaced persons and 5.4 million refugees and asylum seekers. But human mobility in the IGAD region also involves significant numbers of pastoralists.
“Conflict, violence, poverty and climate-related disasters continue to be leading drivers of migration and mobility in the region,” the report said. But freer people mobility also offers opportunity to trade, invest, and increased cultural understanding.
So, faced with both these grim realities but also the immense opportunities, why have some IGAD states remained hesitant to allow citizens to move freely across their borders?
It is largely because the richer democratic countries in the region, such as Kenya, fear that once they sign the protocol, they will be flooded by low-skilled economic migrants from poorer countries. But there are also fears among the poorer and less democratic countries such as Eritrea and Djibouti that signing the IGAD protocol could trigger political instability as their citizens flee to safer states.
This partly explains why, although the IGAD was formed in 1986 with emphasis on the protocol on free movement of persons, majority of states remain hesitant to sign its protocol. 1986 was the height of a very severe drought, famine as well as a desert locust invasion and communal violence in eastern Africa and member states felt threatened.
But it was in 2013 that the Summit of the IGAD heads of state and government adopted a minimum integration plan to serve as a roadmap for regional integration, in which the free movement of people is a key pillar. Then the protocol was only approved by the IGAD member state ministers in charge of internal affairs and labour in 2020.
Uganda signs protocol
Uganda’s signing ceremony was part of a three-day meeting of IGAD member states that was held in the lake side town of Entebbe to review the progress so far made with respect to the signing, ratification and domestication of the “protocol on free movement of persons and transhumance” following the IGAD ministerial meeting held in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, in February 2020.
What protocol means
According to Dr. Gebeyehu, the IGAD Secretary General, the aim of the protocol is to achieve a progressive realisation of free movement of persons regime in the IGAD region that is safe, orderly and beneficial to the citizens of this region. He says this will facilitate options for secure livelihoods for populations, higher volume of regional trade, improved access to basic social services, and access unreached marginal communities and improved governance of rural areas by governments.
Gebeyehu also notes that the signing of the protocol reflects member states’ commitment to fulfil aspirations enshrined in both the UN and AU policy frameworks on free movement of persons and migration in general.
