The African Youth Growth Foundation (AYGF) has embarked on an awareness campaign on irregular migration with support from the Federal Republic of Germany Foreign Office.
Dr Arome Salifu, Executive Director of AYGF during a chat with journalists at a road walk which is part of the awareness campaign, said the road walk is called Migration Information and Communication Campaign.
He said: “This campaign is aimed at reducing incidences of irregular migration and human trafficking through awareness creation, mass mobilisation for popular participation in the awareness and also to see that Nigerians are not victims human trafficking on irregular migration.
Dr Salifu said the risk of irregular migration include organ harvesting, sex slavery, labour exploitation and risk of death in the Mediterranean Sea, Sahara Desert. “We also have the challenge of tarnishing the image of the country in the process,” he noted.
He said the reason why all these things are happening is as a result of push factors which include unemployment, high levels of poverty and insecurity among others.
“We are calling on the government to address these issues and push factors to reduce the cases and the temptation to leave the country at all cost. We are not saying people should not travel, but if you must travel, it must be through the regular pathway for your own safety and dignity.
“We are not just doing this campaign in Abuja, this campaign has been taken to Edo State last year where we had the roadshow and town hall meeting and other events, this year, we have taken the campaign to Delta State, and Abuja serving as one of the transit points in the country, we also have to bring the campaign here.
“We are doing this in order to escalate the advocacy among the key actors and stakeholders so that we can all join hands to fight the scourge of human trafficking and irregular migration in Nigeria,” he stated.
In terms of partnership with the government, he said they work with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, National Human Right Commission.
Jennifer Aga, Assistant Director with Vulnerable Groups Department at the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said the Commission had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with AYGF as regards to the protection of the rights of migrants and creation of awareness of the dangers of irregular migration.
“The reason why we identified with AYGF is that the Executive Secretary of NHRC has a passion for youth and he has realised that youth of Nigeria most times want to leave the country for a greener pasture and he feels that it is necessary for them to be aware of the dangers of irregular migration because it is through this means that they can be trafficked and their rights violated.
“The Executive Secretary deems it fit for us to be part of this so that in as much as we are trying to promote and protect the rights of migrants, we should also let people know that they have the right to migrate but they have to do it in the right way,” she added.
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