Mozambique is home to about 10% of the population of former Southern African miners who served in South Africa's mines, totaling about 150,000 former Mozambican professionals.

The International Organization for Migration, IOM, in Mozambique and partners have drawn attention to the precarious conditions of Mozambican workers in mines.

The participants discussed issues such as compensation for occupational diseases to Mozambican mine workers in South Africa, who want to see the process of compensation and social protection benefits accelerated.

For Laura Tomm-Bonde, head of the IOM mission in Mozambique, says there are advances in the process due to the joint involvement.

"With World Bank funds and partners from the Ministry of Health, of work we started a massive screening at the Health Center in Ressano Garcia and recently expanded to Gaza province, where all miners had full examinations," said Laura Tomm-Bonde, head of the IOM mission in Mozambique, quoted by UN News.

Among several challenges that miners face is access to comprehensive occupational health screening, access to their rights as well as their compensation.

"We monitored the payment of a total of1593 beneficiaries of occupational and social security sickness compensation. This process resulted in the disbursement the equivalent of 800 million meticais. A total of 1,034 claims have been referred to the occupational disease compensation commission, which to date are awaiting their response."

The challenge for better social protection benefits for miners also extends to the Ministry of Health.

According to data from the organization, in 2021, Mozambique registered a total of about 98,000 cases of tuberculosis, of which 2.7% corresponds to the high-risk group including miners and ex-miners.

IOM data indicate that there are currently between 15,000 and 20,000 Mozambican mine workers still active in the mines of South Africa. Of this number about 1,500 have been identified with lung diseases.

Source: UN New