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MIDRAND, SOUTH AFRICA – Ms Rita Amukhobu, the Head of the Humanitarian Affairs Division at the African Union Commission (AUC) has urged the Pan African Parliament (PAP) to promote the ratification and implementation of the Protocol on Free Movement of People in Africa.
She made the remarks virtually today in her presentation during the Sitting of the Committee on Trade, Customs, and Immigration in Midrand, South Africa.
She said free movement enables businessmen to do business across the countries. She cited Nigerian businessman, Aliko Dangote, who has had challenges in many African countries because of travel restrictions.
“It is becoming even clearer that we cannot have or you cannot enhance a free trade area or free trade market if we are not able to support and facilitate the movement of people. Goods do not trade by themselves. It is people that trade with each other so we must help these people to move around the continent in doing their businesses. The students are also others that need to move around. Skilled workers for their services, also need to be facilitated,” Amukhobu said.
Many a time, communities are cut and divided by borders and there is a need to facilitate the free movement of people. The protocol is very clear when it comes to people seeking asylum that there is an international legal framework that protects these kinds of people and therefore the protocol points us back to that international asylum regime and the framework that protects them.
The protocol provides an opportunity for member states to look at their capacities to build their borders and enhance their borders so that they facilitate the movement of people across the border.
It also talks a lot about cross-border cooperation, which is required in terms of facilitating the movement of people. The African Union Commission will be able to visit several borders, some of which are from new countries.
Member states may not move at the same pace, and may not have the same interests. The protocol provides that those who are at the same pace
can coalesce together and become a coalition of the willing, and then offer each other benefits, just as is the situation with the Schengen space within the EU space. Not all members of the EU are members of the Schengen space. So that is a coalition of the willing which is also provided for within the protocol.
There’s also the principle of non-discrimination, where all citizens who enter a country should be provided the same treatment as long as they have been checked and they are found okay to be able to enter the country.
But it’s also saying that the bilateral arrangements that exist between different countries are honoured and respected. There is nothing in the protocol that stops any country from providing to each other more than what the protocol provides.
The protocol also says that it can be suspended in terms of the borders being closed and basically if there are conditions such as health considerations, as was the case with COVID-19. If some conditions disturb public order, the environment, or any other factor that a country may deem to be detrimental to the state, the protocol may be suspended. Borders can be closed, but information needs to be given to those that will be affected.
Members of the Pan-African Parliament play a very important and influential people in their countries but also collectively on the African continent as they bring together the issue of integration which is of importance to the continent.
They are policymakers at the continental and national levels. PAP members can also become goodwill ambassadors in championing the protocol. They can also conduct studies to clarify and show the need for the protocol, to clarify grey areas, to show the benefits of the protocol so that
it is rooted in real research.
When it comes to ratification of the protocol, the AUC relies on PAP members to make sure that the protocol enters into force. It will require harmonization of national policies, laws, and procedures with the protocol.
