Zimbabwe’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Amon Murwira, has said there is no migration crisis in the SADC region, arguing that cross-border flows are driven by economic opportunities rather than distress.
Speaking to SABC News on the sidelines of the SADC Foreign Ministers’ Retreat this week in South Africa, Murwira said the movement of people across borders was not in itself a problem.
However, he stressed that there was a need to regulate cross-border movement to ensure it remains orderly and beneficial to the region.
“We are SADC. We are a community. Community means community. We cannot be fragmented when we are a community,” said Mrwira.
“We must face threats, and we must be able to solve them. People say migration crisis, but there is no crisis.
“People have been moving. It’s how they move and how we regulate movement.
“What makes people see a crisis is something which has nothing to do with movement. The root cause of movement is either opportunity or its push. Push, pull.
“But at the end of the day, when we assure common prosperity, the movement will be for good because people move with food. And people move with money, and that’s how economies function.”
Murwira stressed that while migration was not a problem, it should be orderly rather than haphazard.
“Economies function because of movement. But we are not saying random movement, regulated movement, movement with intention, not movement with disruption.
“So, the issue basically is that sometimes people call, they cry a crisis. There is no crisis.”
Murwira argued that outside forces were pushing a narrative of a migration crisis in SADC when no such crisis exists.
“Be careful what you say in terms of whether it’s a crisis, whether it’s a phenomenon. What is our intention?
“Our intention is prosperity. So, we shall assure ourselves of prosperity through harmony.
“Our architecture of harmony must be well done, and we must not force disharmony by the outside force.
“Outside force is always dangerous because it breaks the egg. Inside force brings chickens.”
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