IOM to deepen relations with Egypt to combat illegal immigration

CAIRO - 19 December 2018: In light of Egypt's presidency of the African Union in 2019, Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), António Vitorino, expressed his keenness to deepen the bilateral relations with Egypt, namely in the field of combating illegal immigration.

This announcement came during a Tuesday meeting with Minister of Interior Mohamed Tawfiq, during which Vitorino and Tawfiq reviewed cooperation between the Interior Ministry and IOM to combat illegal immigration.

Tawfiq highlighted the national and international efforts Egypt exerts, stressing that the ministry provides African countries with technical support to combat illegal immigration and human trafficking, as it organizes training programs at the Police Academy in cooperation with friendly countries.

He further remarked that countries should cooperate to confront terrorist organizations, which exploit illegal immigration to carry out their criminal acts.

In June, Egypt’s Police Academy launched its second training course on illegal immigration for the benefit of African security's calibers; more than 21 African countries suffering from the same phenomenon benefited from this training.

This training course came as part of the cooperation protocol signed between the Egyptian Police Academy and the Italian Ministry of Interior on September 13, 2017.

Italian Police chief Franco Gabrielli stressed during the workshop on the great coordination between the Italian Ministry of Interior and the Egyptian police in the security field.

Gabrielli explained that Egypt has succeeded to control terrorism and illegal immigration, closely monitoring both phenomena inside and outside the country.

He added that Egypt’s Interior Ministry uses advanced security techniques to combat and uncover crimes.

“The Italian government chose the Egyptian Police Academy's training center because Italy believes in Egypt's great potential in the field of security and places trust in the Egyptian police Academy,” Gabrielli added.

He pointed out that the two sides are seeking to unite efforts to combat terrorism, praising the efforts of the Egyptian Interior Ministry to combat illegal immigration, and adding that this phenomenon cannot be reduced without the exchange of information between the countries that receive illegal migrants.

“The Egyptian government provides all information about the migrants, and their activities, which helps other governments to fight this phenomenon,” he said, asserting that controlling the countries' borders is one of the most important means to combat illegal immigration.

Egyptian Police Academy received the first training course on March 20 in the presence of the Italian police chief, the head of the European Union delegation and members of the crime control department.