Mrs Edna Dafe, the Director of Women Board of Nigeria, an NGO, on Friday advised Nigerians to desist from illegal migration due to the inherent danger involved.
Dafe gave the advice at a seminar organised in Lagos to sensitise the public on the need to embrace safe migration.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar was tagged: “Promoting Safe Migration”.
“We organised this programme as part of an ongoing Women’s Board Project called ForSUD, which stands for” Together For A Rising Sun”; a project for women, which started in 2019.
“This project is aimed at preventing the causes of irregular migration and trafficking in humans and promoting socio-economic development for women and unaccompanied minors.
“I believe this seminar will help to sensitise people on the need for people to follow the right path to migration and avoid irregular migration,” she said.
Dafe said the NGO established in 2019, was collaborating with the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), to identify and train returnee migrants and victims of human trafficking.
“As I am speaking right now, we are also training some returnees whom we were able to identify with the help and cooperation of NAPTIP,” she said.
The director attributed the socio-economic situation of the country as one of the factors contributing to the need for persons to migrate adding that illegal migration was dangerous.
“If you ask most people these days, they will indicate their desire to relocate out of the country because of the situation of the country.
“However, most of us go about migration in the wrong way, and this is actually dangerous for the people involved.
“We have seen lots of scenarios of how people endanger their lives on their trip overseas; some go through the desert, others through oceans. These pictures are not palatable,” she said.
Ms Veronika Esode, a member of the NGO who spoke on a topic titled “Empowering Women and Reducing Vulnerability through One on One Mentoring”, said, “Prevention is better than cure”.
“We educate women, we give them the power to choose, letting them understand that it is not really as rosy as it seems out there abroad.
“Poverty is one of the basic factors which make victims of trafficking fall into the traps of those who lure them with a lot of enticements.
“If we are not able to curb or solve the problems of migrants, they will go anyway because the culprits know their weaknesses, and therefore entice them with the things they really need,” Esode said.
She called for more concerted efforts to curb illegal migration and trafficking in persons through the various mentorship programmes.
In his speech, Mr Ganiu Alao, NAPTIP Zonal Commander called for more collaboration to help reduce the evil of human trafficking through illegal migration.
Alao noted that migration was a right and part of human existence, but that there was a thin line between trafficking in persons and migrants.
“NAPTIP is doing a lot but we still need more partnership and support in this fight against human trafficking.
“The government alone cannot do everything, so it is also on us to galvanise efforts to curb these irregular migrations,” he said.
Alao commended the NGO for its support and encouraged it to do more. (NAN)
