President Muhammadu Buhari Monday assured the international community that his administration was already implementing several people-oriented programmes to meet the humanitarian needs of the over two million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The President, who disclosed this at the High-Level Summit on \u201cAddressing Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants\u201d on the margins of the 71st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA71) in New York, United States, said such intervention programmes include: the Presidential Intervention Committee on Rehabilitation of the North-East; the Victims Support Fund; the Safe Schools Initiative and the proposed North-East Development Commission currently undergoing legislative process.<\/p>\n
President Buhari added that, \u201cwe are making concerted efforts to meet our citizens\u2019 immediate humanitarian needs by reducing their risk and vulnerability and increasing their resilience through vocational training and skills acquisition programmes, particularly for IDPs in camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
The President said any discourse on refugees and migrants in the case of Nigeria, \u201cwill be incomplete without reference to our internally displaced persons, victims of Boko Haram\u2019s terrible atrocities,\u201d which also rendered 600,000 persons homeless in Nigeria\u2019s neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n
He noted that in order to find a lasting solution to this regional challenge, Nigeria in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, recently hosted a regional conference on displacement of persons within the framework of Regional Protection Dialogue on the Lake Chad Basin.<\/p>\n
At the global level, President Buhari said Nigeria has equally shown appreciable concern on issues of global human mobility using such control instruments as the National Migration Policy; Labour Migration Policy; Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Laws, and Nigeria Immigration and National Drug Law Enforcement Acts.<\/p>\n
The Nigerian leader condemned all new forms of racism, xenophobia and hate ideology targeted at \u201cundermining the considerable benefits that migration can deliver to global efficiency.\u201d He said such divisive tendencies only lead to violence and avoidable loss of lives in a world that requires cooperation, adding that \u201cglobalization should mean free movement of goods, services and people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nigeria, he said, \u201cbelieves that without deliberate and collective commitment and action, the issue of large movement of refugees and migrants may impede our aspirations toward achieving the Programme of Action of the Cairo Agenda +20 and global determination to leave no one behind in the implementation of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).\u201d<\/p>\n
Follow Us<\/p>\n