International migration experts arrive Nigeria

Experts from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) on Monday arrived Nigeria to provide support for development of functional template for national policy in labour migration.

The project funded by European Union (EU) is geared towards developing a template for skills acquisition, collate statistics that will enable Nigeria have a database on the migrant workers to other countries across the world.

The team will over the next 11 days hold bilateral meetings with key agencies such as Foreign Affairs Ministry, National Bureau of Statistics, National Refugee Commission and National Population Commission.

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, who welcomed the team led by Naozad Hodiwala, ICMPD project director, stressed President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration commitment towards provision of decent employment for Nigerians across the country in line with International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) convention.

Ngige, who acknowledged the need to strengthen the policy on migration, said: “The ultimate aim will be a sort of two way tragic to benefit those who are exporting labour migration and the recipients.

“In view of that, it is necessary that we capture the skills they have and their qualifications, the conditions of work, hours they work and the remuneration where possible. It is something we are proud of in this country that we want to do our things in consonance with due process mantra of this administration.

“The Muhammadu Buhari’s government came into power with one of the cardinal objective of generation of jobs for Nigerians. When we say we want to create jobs, it’s jobs. However, having created jobs, some of those jobs need to migrate so that we don’t have overcrowding here.

“If we have to migrate, we feel it is necessary to do it in consonance with international best practices, so that skilled people going out of Nigeria do not become a sort of embarrassment to the countries where they are going to. We want them to be regarded as legal resident aliens and accorded all rights for decent Jon’s in conformity with ILO conventions.”

The minister further observed that the national policy on migration approved by Nigeria in October 2014, was aimed at strengthening structures for protection of migrant workers through good policy framework.

Ngige, who lamented that Nigeria lacked requisite information for migration policy, said: “Every good policy requires good data for effective implementation. Up-to-date evidence and information about labour market needs and migrant workers profiles, including their origin, citizenship, age and sex composition, education and skills, qualifications, labour force participation, sectors of work, treatment and conditions of administration, policy implementation, impact assessment, monitoring and evaluation. Unfortunately, most of this information is lacking in Nigeria.”

Speaking earlier, Naozad Hodiwala, ICMPD project director, who led the delegation, explained that the organisation had 110 requests from around the world including technical assistance and support in all areas of migration management.

According to Hodiwala, the organisation, which has its presence in 15-member states from Europe, was established in 1993, hence the need to assist African countries who have challenges on data gathering on labour migration.