Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria, MEPN, a campaign highlighting the dangers of illegal migration was launched Tuesday at the Centre for Management Development, CMD, Lagos. The campaign which is aimed at stopping illegal migration of Nigerians to Europe was jointly organized by the African-German Information Center, AGiP, and the African Courier Verlag, Berlin, Germany. Supported by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the event attracted representatives of youth organizations, women groups and government officials, and speaker after speaker emphasized the dangers of illegal migration and the need for young Nigerians to desist from embarking on it.
Kenneth Gbandi, director of AGiP, and chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe, urged young Nigerians who want to travel abroad to travel responsibly. “If you must travel, rather than travel through the rough desert, explore the right ways. If you must travel, look before you leap,” said Gbandi.
Femi Awoniyi, publisher of the African Courier and director of MEPN, quoting figures from the International Organisation for Migration, said it was so worrisome that this year alone about 2,200 Africans have perished in the Mediterranean. He said many more are believed to have died due to difficulties in traveling across the Sahara desert or in transit countries, and Nigeria accounts for a greater percentage of the population of illegal migrants.
It is said that in Libya, for example, there are up to one million migrants trapped in transit where they are exposed to harsh living conditions and widespread human rights abuses. Awoniyi said some of the illegal migrants are traded as slaves for ransom, labour or sex by gangs of human traffickers and many of them die in the appalling conditions of detention facilities operated by both by the Libyan authorities and non-state groups.
It came to light that many of the migrants are lured from Nigeria by human traffickers who make false promises to deceive them into paying huge sums of money for a passage to Europe. But as Awoniyi put it, there is no easy passage to Europe through irregular migration.
Sadat Hassan, deputy comptroller of Immigration, Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, who was until recently the head of a Immigration at the Nigerian Embassy in Germany, appealed to Nigerians to tackle the thorny issue of illegal migration to Europe. According to her, she spent five years and six months as head of Immigration in Germany and saw first hand how Nigerians who travelled illegally to that country are subjected to inhuman treatments. “The cases are pathetic. I wept on several occasions over the treatments our youths are subjected to. The hazard of road travel is nothing compared to the danger of living abroad illegally. Many Nigerians, in the attempt to get German state permit, go from club to club, sleeping with all kinds of people and end up contacting HIV. So many Nigerians are in prison but not all of them are guilty. If you have to go abroad, make sure you do it legally so that if you are asked to go back, you go back with your dignity intact,” said Hassan.
Similarly, Rita Orji, chairman of House of Representatives committee on Diaspora, lamented over the plight of illegal immigrants whom she said often have their livers and kidneys removed for organ transplants. She said Nigerians are facing problems of migration caused by Nigerians themselves. “Some parents force their children to travel abroad, they even sell their land to finance their trips abroad. So people are forced to do odd jobs to pay back all the money used to migrate them to Europe,” said Orji.
So far, there are about 32,000 Nigerians seeking asylum seekers in Germany. To such people, Orji said: “Every country has its own problems, if you don’t have anything genuine abroad, stay back at home. With the green passport you are a threat. Don’t make yourself a prey. You can’t get legal ready from illegality.”