The Presidency has said that with the assistance of International Office for Migration (IOM) and the Federal Government, over 7,000 Nigerian immigrants have been returned home from different European countries.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, Abike Dabiri Erewa, stated this yesterday at a stakeholders’ forum organised by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abuja.
She said Nigeria had been identified as mainly a country of origin with thousands of its nationals travelling to Europe through Mediterranean Sea in search of greener pasture yearly.
According to her, the government has successfully launched national labour migration policy and worked out its implementation strategies for a better migration management in the country.
Dabiri-Erewa, who also identified economic hardship, poverty, insecurity, poor governance, ignorance and inadequate job opportunities as major causes of movement of the people to other parts of the world, said: “Government has stepped up collaboration efforts with other countries, regional and international organisations like IOM, EU, UNHCR, AU and ECOWAS aimed at a proper migration management.”
Earlier, UNHCR Representative in Nigeria, Antonio Jose Canhandula, said over 34,000 Nigerians have applied for asylum in Europe and that between January and August 2017, an estimated 2,270 refugees and migrants died in Mediterranean Sea.
Source: guardian.ng
