By Akpokona Omafuaire
WARRI - THE Nigerian government and relevant stakeholders have been called upon to pay keen attention to the issues of migration, as effects of demographic forces, globalization and environmental degradstion will lead to increase migration pressures across borders.
This call was made by Osita Osemene, Program Director, Patriotic Citizens Initiatives during a capacity training organized by CSOnetMADE with the support of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for journalists in Benin City.
Osita who handled the training alongside Dr. Emeka Obiezu, stressed that the call has become necessary since over half population of the world is on the move either within or across borders.
He urged media agencies to stop criminalizing migrants as migration has always been part of human life.
Osita stated that some few persons owing to issues of militarization and strict border policies, high cost of national passports, Visa restrictions have resorted to irregular migration leading to a lot of challenges.
He also cited unemployment, absence of basic amenities and poor services, lack of safety, poverty, political instability and drought as some of the push factors leading to the increasing rate of migration.
Quoting from IMO 2021 reports, Osita revealed that a total of 17,115 migrants have been successfully returned to Nigeria with Edo and Delta States topping the list, with 39 percent and 13 percent.
The Migration expert said that the way forward is to "create better conditions for leveraging migration by perceiving it as an opportunity to be grasped and not as a problem.
"Find adequate solutions to migration problems by establishing with the support of Europe that hosts most of the migrants, funds to create jobs for youths.
"Strengthen protection of migrants and combat threats such as Xenophobiaor racist attacks in countries of destination.
Osita maintained that the highest migration in Africa has been intra continent with 90 percent of West African migration within the region because of ease of access.
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3 comments:
Nations should facilitate regular migration to reduce the dangers and pitfalls of irregular migration
This is quite revealing. We need to generate data,analyse same to butress migration reports
Migration Data is directly or indirectly generated on daily basis. Therefore to enhance the quality of Reports relevant migration statistics and pictogram are vital to provide information for policy implementation.
As a demographet I think stakeholders in migration should be well trained to produce migrstmig statistics for planning of migration programme.
Thanks.
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