By _Kadiri Christopher_
As a way of disabusing the minds of Nigerian Youths from embarking on irregular migration, the Nigerian Red Cross Society has reignited the acts of stakeholders in Edo State to stand resolute on cases of illegal and irregular migrations.
Highlighting the legality of migration, a resource person, Mr Sani Mohammed Ibrahim said “migration has always been a habit and it is not illegal.”
He defined migration as “the movement of persons to new locations”.
Elucidating on the theme of the seminar which was tagged, “HUMANITARIAN DIPLOMACY WITH AUTHORITIES AT ALL LEVELS ON THE RIGHTS AND NEEDS OF MIGRANTS”, Mr Ibrahim said migration in Africa is categorized in to precolonial, colonial and post colonial times.
He intimated participants that “the last fifteen years has seen increase in Africans migrating”.
He said what trends migrations are usually reasons for refugees, migrants, trafficked persons and asylum seekers.
A Migration Focal Point personnel, Angela Francis, in her lecture, said, migrants are faced with challenges which ranges within smugglers, fear of been killed, kidnapped, robbed or even get missing.
According to her, “migrants are faced with abuses, being injected with dangerous substances, forced to engage in commercial sex, among others.
“Returnees have challenges of rejection, shelter, refugee, while intending migrants are faced with the challenges of quest for a better life, traffickers work hard to convince their victims, insufficient information about legal migration pathways.
“The Rights and needs if the migrant are not important to the trafficker”, she said.
In his welcome address, the Benin Branch Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, Mr Wilson Ekhomogiazin appreciate participants for finding time out if their busy schedules to attend the seminar which is believed to be an upgraded medium in the advocacy for regular migration.
He appreciated the sponsor of the workshop, Croce Rossa Italiana as well as other donor persons and organisations within and outside Edo State and Nigeria.
Participants where drawn from the Nigeria Police, International Organisation for Migration, government ministries, departments and agencies, NAPTIP, Nigerian Immigration Service, National Human Rights Commission, Red Cross Society, Nigeria Union of Journalists, among others.