…NIS begins sensitization campaign against migrant smuggling
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to unveiled the Observatory Report on Smuggling of Migrants (SOM) through and out of the country.
Speaking at the event held on Tuesday at headquarters of the service in Abuja, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Isah Jere Idris who was represented by the Deputy Comptroller General in-charge of Visa and Residency, DCG IAM Haliru fdc assured of the Service’s commitment to contain the menace of migrants smuggling, stressing that the service having fully domesticated the protocol against the smuggling of migrants by land, sea and air in the Immigration Act 2015 (Sections 65-98) is statutorily empowered with the necessary legal instrument to prosecute smugglers of migrants.
Idris thanked Canadian government and other development partners for their impactful interventions in the fight against smuggling of migrants and other cross-border criminal activities.
Idris reiterated the continuous commitment of the service to collaborate with critical stakeholders in any efforts at achieving orderly, humane and responsive migration.
He noted that the Service will look at the Report closely with a view to enabling processes and procedures to frontally address the issues raised.
The Observatory Report sought to unravel the dynamics of Smuggling of Migrants activities through and to Nigeria for a period between 2019-2021.
Earlier in his remarks, Country Representative of UNODC, Dr. Oliver Stolpe described the report as insightful and quite useful in understanding and addressing the unfolding migratory realities in Nigeria and in the West African sub-region.
Stolphe noted that an interesting element of the report was the steadily decreasing cases of the cross border crime in Nigeria since 2018 and called for the sustenance of the tempo with a view to wiping out the menace out of the country’s migratory discourse.
Similarly, the representative of Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria Ms Majorie Lubin appreciated the depth of the report and pledged her government’s continuous partnerships and collaborations with the NIS and other relevant stakeholders in better migration management.
The presentation of the report demonstrates another giant move by the NIS, UNODC and indeed other partners to offer reliable inferences on the unfolding migratory realities in the country.
An instructive finding of the research is that 75 percent of Nigerians on the move surveyed during the work stated that they had planned to use migrant smugglers or travel facilitators when they were preparing for their journey as compared to 21 percent who said they had not planned to do so. The report further indicated that 72 percent of those surveyed stated that someone or something influenced their decision to migrate while just 9 percent of that group cited smugglers as the most important influence.
On gender profiling of migrant smugglers, the report stated that 78 percent are men, 19 percent, women and 3 percent both. The Observatory Report was done by some researchers under the auspices of UNODC.
Meanwhile, as part of efforts to increase public awareness on the ills of migrants smuggling, the 2022 Nationwide Sensitization Programme on Smuggling of Migrants was flagged-off during the event. Other major highlights of the event include the unveiling of the Observatory Report Document and goodwill messages from representatives of relevant stakeholders such as the Ministry of Interior, FIIAPP-ATIPSOM, ICMPD and NAPTIP among others.
The event was attended by representatives of the Embassies of Denmark, Spain, Italy, Netherlands and the Inspector General of Police, (represented by CP Babatola Afolabi), NACTAL and the Refugees Commission represented by Mr. Titus Murdakai.
