Illegal migration in Nigeria: A solution approach

NIGERIA’s retardation is premised on poor leadership, economic stagnation, intractable insecurity challenges and lack of supportive  infrastructure which breeds poverty, unemployment and hardship in the country. As an escape route, illegal migrants engage in cross-border drug peddling, smuggling  of contraband goods, organ harvest, human trafficking, forced  labour, prostitution and menial jobs. Some also take up refugee  and asylum claims for frivolous  reasons. This leads to concomitant harsh treatment  of Nigerians abroad. Frankly, this trend has to be addressed  if Nigeria  must be respected  in the comity of  nations, given its status as a regional influential and the giant of  Africa. According to Lanre Ikuteyibo of the Obafemi Awolowo  University,  Ile Ife, Nigeria,  in a study  conducted on Why Nigerians Risk Illegal  Migration  to Find their “Eldorado “, “irregular migration tends to fester in the face of economic adversity ( poverty).”  He further stated that “Young Nigerians make up the largest population of the growing flow of migrants from Africa to developed countries. In 2016, over 20,000 involved in the Mediterranean Sea crossing were reported to be from Nigeria”. The link between illegal Immigration and poverty  is striking  and both need to be addressed in this piece.

Going by the reports of the World Poverty Clock, more Nigerians have been plunged into extreme poverty since November 2019. According to The Guardian online reports of November 05, 2020,  the latest figure shows that over 105 million Nigerians, out of 205,323,520 projected population of Nigeria,  representing  percent now live in extreme poverty.  An individual is classified as living in extreme poverty if the person earns below $1.90 or N855 a day, according to the paper. However, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in May 2020 released its 2019 report on “Poverty and Inequality in Nigeria” and put the figure of Nigerians living in extreme poverty at 89.2 million. This represents 40.1 percent of Nigeria’s population, reports The Guardian newspaper. Whether poverty rate in Nigeria is 51 per cent or 40.1 per cent, the fact remains that it is high and rising every year.  There  are no signs that it is not going to soar in the coming years. This ugly situation is exacerbated by high inflation rate in the midst of extreme  poverty.

Nigeria’s inflation rate jumped to 14.23 per cent, year-on-year, in October 2020 from 13.71 percent in September  2020 as a result of escalating food prices and a protracted crisis in the foreign exchange (FOREX) market, according  to The Guardian newspaper reports  of November 17, 2020. To buttress  this fact,  the Director-General of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Dr. Timothy Olawale, said that the persistent increase in food prices, caused by border closures, restrictions in the foreign exchange market and  insecurity are factors that have led to rising inflation. The deregulation  of the downstream oil sector has witnessed the increase in petrol pump price  by almost 30 per cent in the last four months, which suggests a continuous increase in transport cost. Sadly, the masses are now being battered on two fronts, high transport cost, and high inflation.

Considering the high rate of poverty and unemployment , the continuous increases  in the prices of consumable goods, rent, school fees, electricity  bills and the challenges  thrown up by them, the average youth in Nigeria thinks that the immediate  solution to the these challenges  is to seek greener pastures overseers. Sadly,  they engage in this at all costs. In order to address this social challenge, we need to address  the following questions: Why do Nigerians embark on illegal migration? What are the impacts of illegal migration on Nigeria? What solutions are we going to proffer to this social challenge? Firstly, Let us look at the meaning of migration. According to Umar Kari, at al, quoting Salaheddine (2010),” International migration can be defined as the permanent  movement of individuals or groups from one place to another. It a basic fact of human history”. Illegal migration  can thus be defined as an unauthorized movement of individuals  or groups from one place to another.

Why do Nigerians embark on illegal migration? Umar Kari et al identify the push factors which refer to the circumstances  at home that push individuals  to seek greener pastures abroad such as poverty, famine, unemployment, insecurity, among others. The pull factors are those conditions found abroad which attract foreigners to those countries. They include employment opportunities, favourable economy, stable economic policies for business, good and supportive infrastructure, responsible  leadership, among others. According to Lanre Ikuteyibo, three factors: economic reasons, family  dynamics and social media facilitate illegal migration. The impacts of illegal migration are negative  and  positive  from empirical studies. On the negative side, it leads to high mortality rate as the organs of some  illegal migrants are harvested for economic advantage. Unhealthy travel conditions and means of transportation abroad have led to boat wrecks and untimely deaths of many migrants in the Sahara desert. Illegal migration poses a huge demographic  pressure on European countries and other host nations as a result of ageing European societies. It leads to higher unemployment in the host countries and festers international dispute among countries. No doubt, it causes serious image crisis as the Nigerian International passports is a suspect for citizens who have to cope with the embarrassment and antagonism  of Immigration  officers.

Illegal migration of  Nigerians into Canada took over the media space few years ago. On May 3 2018, the Voice of America (VOA) reported that Canadian  government was trying to stem the flow of asylum seekers illegally walking across the U.S. border into Canada who eventually file refugee claims: “The Canadian government says many of the more recent arrivals are Nigerians who arrived bearing valid U.S. visas after having spent very little time in the United States..”. This concern is not yet abated. It is a concern for the Canadian government. In spite of these negative impacts, illegal migrants contribute to the economic wellbeing of their families back home. They also take up jobs that legal residents refuse such as domestic staff, mortuary attendants, security watch, and some professional jobs.

The following solutions may be helpful in addressing illegal migration:  Government needs to design economic policies  that will  ensure economic and social wellbeing of Nigerian citizens to encourage nationals to stay at home and contribute to nation building. Nigerian citizens must make demands of responsible leadership on government and display uncanny courage to resist corrupt leadership. Government must demystify fantasies surrounding  the idea that life abroad holds a lot of promises, when this is not always so. A friendly Immigration  policy should be facilitated by source and host countries to encourage legal migration. This will foster friendliness and symbiotic relationships between source and host countries. Immigration laws and strict enforcement should be strengthened to track illegal migrants and those found culpable should be made to face the full wrath of law. The educational sector should be strengthened to ensure that graduates of our institutions are well equipped to take up entrepreneurship. Finally, refugee and asylum challenges should be tackled with crisis communications strategies such as inclusive communication  which promotes diversity and social cohesion; persuasive communications which fosters mutual understanding  for the achievement of a common goal for a new immigration policy and reactive communication  whichresolve conflicts through dialogue.

• Osademe, a PR and communications practitioner, lives in Lagos.

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