A five-day maiden workshop for member states of the African Union and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) aimed to create awareness and increase knowledge on Migration governance opened in Accra on Monday.

The training will also provide guidance to member states and RECs on establishing national coordinating mechanisms on migration and evaluating national and regional migration policy.

In addition, the workshop sponsored by GIZ will provide participants an overview of the migration situation on the African continent as well as guidance and awareness on the various aspects of migration governance.

Speaking at the opening, Mr Peter Mudungwe, Migration Advisor at the Department of Social Affairs of the African Union Commission (AUC), said the "First Member States/RECs Training on Migration Governance" marked the beginning of continental efforts to manage migration.

He said that in the absence of a governmental and all-stakeholder approach, member states could effectively and holistically not manage the various aspects of migration on the continent.

Mr Mudungwe said the decision by the Commission to develop the training modules was a deliberate attempt to bring all member states to a level where they would be capable of enhancing the development potential of migration.

Mr Dominic Afriyie Agyemang, Head of the Migration Unit at the Ministry of Interior, said the training workshop was part of findings and recommendation of an evaluation of the Migration Policy Framework for Africa, which serves as the continent's roadmap on migration.

He said various African governments’ attention, over the years, had been drawn to addressing the difficulties young people on the continent face with regard to unemployment, which deprives the youth and school leavers the right to work during their most productive years.

Mr Agyemang said the development was one of the reasons the African youth migrate and fall prey to dubious employment agencies both on the continent and abroad, which usually ended up in mistreatment or death on the desert.

He commended the AUC for choosing Ghana to host the maiden workshop on migration governance, adding that it was timely as Ghana had declared 2019 as the Year of Return.