The International Organization for Migration, IOM, in collaboration with the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Person have provided safe reception, medical care, and reintegration support for one hundred and eighty two migrants who returned to Nigeria from Libya under the assisted voluntary return and reintegration program.
Head of the IOM Sub-Office in Lagos, Mr Ali Ibrahim Ali who made the development known at an interactive session with newsmen at the transit center located at the Lagos State Relief and Resettlement Camp in Igando, said that providing economic assistance and psychosocial support for the migrants and their reintegration into the society would help them fit back into the system.
Mr Ali said the centre provides safe and temporary accommodation, as well as ensure access to social support and specialised services to returned migrants, unaccompanied children, and Victims of Trafficking.
Some of the returnees at the camp who narrated their ordeals encouraged Nigerians to migrate the appropriate way.
One of them who pleaded anonymity said she left Nigeria at eighteen years through a route from Kano state and bythe time she discovered that her boyfriend had sold her to traffickers, it was too late to return back to Nigeria on her own.
While thanking God for preserving her life through the years of pain and suffering in Libya, she urged young Nigerians to imbibe the spirit of contentment and seek greener pastures in Nigeria rather than through irregular migration to other countries.
Written by Bukola Abe