Lilongwe – Sixteen government officials from Guinea, Togo and Burkina Faso have arrived in Malawi for a four-day regional study tour aimed at giving them practical exposure to the country’s Migration Information and Data Analysis System, known as MIDAS.
The delegation is spending the four days observing how the system is set up and run, with the goal of understanding what it would take to adopt similar technology at home.
At an official briefing, the Director General of the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services, Counsel Dennis Chipao, spoke to the delegates about how central MIDAS has become to border security, migration data management and evidence based decision making. He told the visiting officials he was confident the tour would leave them with the practical knowledge and proven methods needed to roll out modern migration management systems in their own countries.
The department’s Information and Communication Technology team walked the delegates through a detailed presentation on how MIDAS works, running through its main features, the operational gains it delivers and how it feeds into smoother border management. The session opened into a wider discussion afterwards, giving the visitors room to compare notes and pick up hands on lessons.
Speaking for the International Organization for Migration Chief of Mission to Malawi, Project Officer Jeremiah Joshua urged the delegates to throw themselves into the programme, describing MIDAS as a strong and forward looking border management tool built to keep pace with shifting migration and security pressures.
The programme took the group through the MIDAS Training Centre in Lilongwe, where they also inspected the MIDAS Mobile Border Truck. The delegation then moved on to Kamuzu International Airport to watch passenger clearance being processed through the system in real time.
Before the tour wraps up, the officials are scheduled to visit the Mchinji One Stop Border Post and the Dedza One Go Border Post to see how the technology holds up in day to day management of people crossing between countries.
MIDAS is run by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services, with technical backing from the International Organization for Migration and funding from the World Bank through the Southern Africa Trade and Connectivity Project, which is delivered by the Ministry of Transport and Public Works.
The briefing was also attended by the Commissioner for Operations, Mr Limbani Chawinga, the Regional Immigration Officer for the Central Region, Mrs Esnattie Gama Kaimila, the Officer in Charge for Border Affairs, Mr Alexander Chilumpha, and senior officers drawn from Immigration Headquarters.
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