The plight of stranded migrants at the N
Concerned by the situation, officials from the National Commission of Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons are carrying out the registration of persons who desire asylum in Nigeria.
Head of the team, Titus Murdakai, who visited the Nigeria-Cameroon border for facts finding, said they were in Ikom to take the statistics of stranded migrants who needed asylum in Nigeria as a result of the crisis in Cameroon.
Titus Murdakai said the team would be there for five days making sure that they reached out to those stranded at various locations, adding that the commission was impressed with the management of the situation at the Mfum border by the Nigerian security operatives.
Briefing the team earlier, the Assistant Comptroller of Immigration at Mfum border, Mr. Lawrence Asuquo, said 75 migrants of different nationalities were stranded at the Nigerian side of the border, while 20 Nigerians were stranded at Ekok in Cameroon.
The Assistant Comptroller, who spoke on behalf of the Controller of Immigration Service , Cross River State command, Mrs. Funke Adenyi, told the visiting team that the border was closed on September 28, 2017 as a result of the quest for an independent state of Amazonia by Southern Cameroon.
He explained that initially, the border on the Cameroonian side was to be closed for 72 hours as emergency measure but expressed concern that it had remained closed since September 28.
He assured of cordial work relationship between the security officials of both countries, point out that they had always been in touch to know when the Cameroonian authorities would open their border.
Mr. Lawrence Asuquo expressed concern at the plight of the stranded migrants at the border, where there were no screening centres and withholding cells and called for patience until the border was opened.
Some of those stranded at the border, including women and children, said they lacked basic necessities like food, water and clothing to continue to sustain themselves.
A representative of the Cameroonian migrants who spoke on their plight, Tateh Donard Silav told our reporters that the people of Southern Cameroon were marginalized by the authorities at Yaounde.
He said some of them have been granted asylum by the Nigerian Government because of what he called Anglophone crisis in Cameroon and traced the genesis of the crisis in the country.
Tateh Donard Silav said since nineteen sixty-one, Southern Cameroon has suffered marginalization under the republic of Cameroon where they are treated as slaves.
Tateh Donard who said he was a refugee in Nigeria disclosed that recent crisis began because lawyers in Anglophone South protested the justice system where the civil law practiced in Francophone was imposed in the south that practices common law.
He said teachers also protested the educational system introduced in the south by the Cameroonian authorities leading to a consortium by protesters and arrest of some his member by government.
Our reporters observed that Ekok in Cameroon that used to beehive of activities was a shadow of itself as commercial activities have been granded following the border closure.
The situation has affected socio-economic activities of both countries.
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