The Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) Hon. Alusine Kanneh met with a delegation from the Belgium Immigration Office where he discussed progress made since he took over as the Chief Immigration Officer and requested for more support from the Belgium Immigration Department in Brussels.
Hon. Kanneh said the meeting was a good one and thus happy to partner with the Belgium Immigration Officials.
He added that they have agreed to have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Immigration Office in Belgium, Brussels and both parties have also agreed to travel to Brussel to have MoU as far as migration is concerned.
The CIO disclosed to the Belgium Immigration Officials that he wants them to work together in minimizing the irregular migration issues to Europe. ‘To me, today’s meeting is a good one, we are happy, we are grateful our partners have started coming to us and one of the things that made me happy is that you are very impressed with the office.”
The CIO added that his expectation from the meeting is to collaborate and make sure that there will be a bilateral cooperation, information exchange, capacity building, technical assistance, visa processing, border management control, collaborative initiative, technology integration, humanitarian efforts and migration policies.
The Chief Immigration Officer commended Belgium Immigration Office for its support to Sierra Leone saying that the Immigration Department in Brussels had been a very supportive partner to the country. He said his office was looking into more areas of partnership with the Belgium Immigration.
Frederick Rosemont, Director General of the Belgium Migration Service, thanked the CIO for hosting them and praised the Chief Immigration Officer for his hospitality. He said the key purpose of their meeting with the Sierra Leone Chief Immigration Officer was collaboration and that no country can do well in migration policies without having collaboration with other countries.
Frederick Rosemont opined that Sierra Leone is a good partner therefore they from Belgium are working hard to see how they can address visa processes between the two countries.
Frederick Rosemont disclosed that they will soon start a good collaboration and both parties will formulate an agreement, sign and adopt before the end of the year.
For more inquiries:
Communication Specialist,
Office of the Chief Immigration Officer
+23276158501/+23276843346