The United Nations has announced that its International Organization for Migration has returned 16,800 Nigerian illegal migrants, since it launched a scheme with the European Union in 2017 to safely return Nigerian migrants stuck in Europe.
This was disclosed by Cyprne Cheptepkeny, the Project Officer, Awareness Raising, IOM, in a meeting in Benin, Edo State on Friday, with the aim of promoting safe migration measures with stakeholders.
According to the IOM, MIDAS would enable synchronisation of real-time data between the airports and the NIS headquarters in Abuja to effectively monitor entry and exit, while automatically flagging and reporting travel documents and individuals linked to transnational organised crime to INTERPOL.
In the town hall meeting on Friday, themed: “Local Opportunities as Panacea for Changing Illegal Migration Practices,” IOM said that Edo state accounted for 40% of the total number of returned migrants, followed by Delta (13%), and Ogun State (6%).
Cheptepkeny added that the aim of the meeting was to provide a platform for returned migrants to share their experiences and educate Nigerians on the dangers of illegal travel.
“Sharing videos and experiences is one key activity we do, using migrants as messengers to sensitise targeted audience,” she said.
Ijeoma Uduak, the Benin Zonal Commander of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), said the Benin Command of the agency had sentenced 9 persons for human trafficking of migrants.
The Human Rights Watch estimated that 80 percent of women and girls arriving from Nigeria – whose numbers had soared from 1,454 in 2014 to 11,009 in 2016 – were potential victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation in the streets and brothels of Europe.
Nairametrics reported in 2019 that Nigeria had partnered with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to launch a new Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS) at the Abuja International Airport.
SOURCE: Nairametrics
