The National Commission for Refugees, Migrants & Internally Displaced Persons has said that it received a total of 11,494 migrant returnees in the South-west zone of the country in 2018.
NCRMI’s South-west Zonal Head, Margaret Ukegbu, told the News
Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Lagos that the returnees were mostly from
Libya, Niger, Mali, Morocco, Liberia, France, Ireland, Poland and Austria.
According to her, the commission received about 10,180 Nigerian
returnees from Libya and another 1, 314 returnees from Niger, Mali,
Morocco, Liberia, France, Ireland, Poland and Austria, within the year.
She said: “Under the Joint Initiative for Migrant Return and Reintegration
Project, implemented by the International Organisation for Migration,
the Commission has received a total number of 10,180 Nigerian returnee
migrants from Libya, through the South-west Zonal Office in Lagos.
“Within the year, we also received about 1, 314 migrant returnees from
Niger, Mali, Morocco, Liberia, France, Ireland, Poland and Austria.’’
The NCRMI official said the commission, in collaboration with the
IOM, had within the period embarked on reintegration programmmes for
thousands of the returnees.
Ukegbu said that the organisation had established a Migrants Reintegration Centre in Lagos, which last year reintegrated about 147 persons through Skills acquisition in Hair dressing, tailoring, catering and others.
She said: “There is currently one Migrant Reintegration Centre in Lagos, which is the first of its kind in Nigeria.
“The centre provides shelter for returnees for a period of 90 days, as well as skill acquisition and pyscho-social counselling for these migrant returnees.’’
