GAPs University of Nigeria Team Attends the 3rd Quarterly Meeting of Working Group on Return, Readmission and Reintegration in Nigeria
Group photo of the WGRRR members in Kano, Nigeria, on the first day of the workshop
The University of Nigeria team of the GAPs project attended the 3rd quarterly meeting of the Working Group on Return, Readmission and Reintegration (WGRRR) on 4-5 September 2023 at the Bristol Palace Hotel in Kano, North West Nigeria. The meeting was organised by the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), the government agency that coordinates migration governance in Nigeria, and was covered by the Nigerian Television Authority. The WGRRR is a multi-stakeholder platform which has the mandate to oversee activities and receive reports of the Reintegration Committees (RCs) (the sub-national coordination framework for the implementation of Return, Readmission and Reintegration or RRR), develop manuals of operation for the implementation of RRR, develop strategies and action plans to resolve emerging issues, strengthen inter-agency collaboration amongst other objectives as outlined in the National Migration Policy (2015) of Nigeria.
The meeting, which was funded by ICMPD in collaboration with IOM and the EU, was attended by approximately 65 participants including state actors, CSOs/NGOs, international partners, researchers and academics. The overall objective of the meeting was to provide a platform to the WGRRR members to elicit suggestions on the advancement of the governance framework on RRR at the central and decentralised levels, and strengthen coordination and collaboration among stakeholders, in the provision of post-arrival services to vulnerable persons, including victims of trafficking, returning to Nigeria.
The Acting Honourable Federal Commissioner of NCRMI, Ambassador Catherine Udida, in her speech thanked IOM and ICMPD for their continuous support in strengthening migration governance in Nigeria including sponsoring of previous meetings/workshops and the reintegration of returned migrants in the country. She asked all stakeholders to take the message of sustainable reintegration of returnees to their various constituencies.
ICMPD expert, Dr Grace Dafiel, in her presentation on RRR Governance Framework explained that the framework outlines the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders and defines the management processes for the RRR of all returned migrants in line with relevant international, regional, and national legal instruments. She reiterated that stakeholders including employees and partners have important roles to play in committing to good governance in the RRR of migrants.
IOM Migrant Protection and Assistant Programme Manager, Ruth Mbugua, in her presentation on National Referral Mechanism (NRM) stated that the referral mechanism for migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse is a process of cooperation between multiple stakeholders to provide protection and assistance services to vulnerable migrants. She mentioned that the NRM has all the structures to tackle all of the returnees’ problems including helping those with wrong names and mistakes in their dates of birth to access reintegration support.
A total of seven RCs gave reports on the reintegration activities in their states and zones during the period July - September 2023. These include reports from Abuja, Edo, Enugu, Delta, Kano, Lagos and Yobe/Borno. According to the reports, Kano State RC with 146 returnees received the highest number of returnees in Nigeria in the period under review. The returnees were received at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA) in Kano. A total of 39 of the returnees were adult males, 56 adult females, 16 male children and 35 female children who came in on a chartered flight SKY Mali Airline B737-400 with Registration number UR CQX operated by Ethiopian Airlines and originated from Agadez in the Niger Republic. The initial intention of the returnees was to travel to countries such as Algeria, Libya, Spain, Morocco, Mali, Belgium, Tunisia, Germany and other European countries but they were mainly intercepted in Algeria.
Table 1: Kano Returnees for July-September 2023 | Source: Kano State RC, 2023.
Edo State RC received 22 returnees and successfully trained 5 victims of trafficking in hairdressing and tailoring, Delta State RC is talking with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) on how to provide vocational training to 10 returnees while Enugu State raised awareness about the ills of migrating through irregular pathways in communities in the state.
During the questions and answers session on the second day, Ngozi Louis Uzomah from the GAPs UNN team asked a question about the ways in which potential returnees who do not have identification papers can acquire travel documents to enable them to return from abroad. The representative from the Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) explained that individuals who do not have international passport or national identity cards but wish to return home can access the Instrument of Safe Passage (ISP) at any Nigerian mission abroad for their smooth return to Nigeria. She added that those who are unable to get ISP are, however, allowed to return and enter Nigeria but all returnees must be screened and referrals must be made to the relevant authorities for adequate investigation.
Ngozi Louis Uzomah from the GAPs UNN team (in a red tie) in a group photo with some members of the WGRRR meeting on the second day of the workshop
The representative from SMEDAN in his presentation explained that after giving returnees loans for business start-ups, SMEDAN monitors their progress by observing the gains and challenges periodically to advise returnees on how to improve their businesses.
The representative from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of Nigeria in his presentation stated that data could be used to improve reintegration activities while the representative of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment explained the loopholes used by labour recruiters in short-changing migrants. He also mentioned that returnees can leverage the programme of the Ministry for their sustainable reintegration into society.
During the meeting, recommendations from the two previous working group meetings were consolidated, the RRR Governance Framework was updated, and the Action Plan for the implementation of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on RRR was harmonised for possible adaptation and adoption.
In the end, an Action Plan for the implementation of the SOP on RRR was debated upon and necessary ingredients to make reintegration sustainable in Nigeria were added to it. The Plan was made ready to be officially adopted in the 4th quarterly meeting which will take place in December 2023.