Sierra Leone’s Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt has discussed with the Head of Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Christos Christodoulides on the various opportunities in the tourism industry for Sierra Leonean returnees. The discussions were held at the Ministry’s Headquarters, Kingharman Road, Freetown.
In her remarks, Dr. Pratt said the idea was to have an integrated arrangement between the Ministry and the IOM in terms of reintegrating returnees by looking at the diversified facilities of tourism. Training returnees on eco-tourism development through beach management, giving them the capacity to recycle and going into small businesses and entertainment are part of the opportunities for returnees in the tourism industry. She added that the Ministry and the National Tourist Board will be holding induction training for the returnees to have an understanding of the importance of what they will be engaged in, take their minds off their return to Sierra Leone and focus on the opportunities that await them.
On his part, the IOM Head of Office, Christos Christodoulides said it was an honour to discuss with the Minister their collaboration with the Ministry, saying that their first pilot project for the next three months is to support three hundred Sierra Leonean returnees on pilot reintegration programme which is aimed at beach cleaning with support from the government of Italy. He stated that IOM Sierra Leone aims to strengthen the strong collaboration with the Ministry and support vulnerable Sierra Leonean returnees in innovative reintegration projects.
