Emmanuel Thomas
November 18, 2015 – Every year, millions of African migrants die in the Mediterranean Sea in their quest to enter Europe where they feel they could get the best life has to offer.
Most of them are often declared missing by families. As part of effort to remember them, the European Union(EU) has set aside 25 million Pounds Sterling to assist Nigeria and other members of the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) to tackle cases of human trafficking in the next five years.
Programme Manager, Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa, Ms. Geertrui Lanneau, stated this while speaking at a workshop on its five years project in Abuja.
He said that the Missing Migrant is an initiative of the Demand Driven Facility for National Institutions in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons.
Lanneau said that the project was aimed at addressing the existing gaps in migration that revolves around human trafficking, slavery and prostitution abroad.
“The total funding for the five year programme is €25 million (about N5.325 billion) for Nigeria and the entire ECOWAS region. Although it is very difficult to give precise figures, many Nigerians have died while crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
“But in order to track such persons, the EU has conceptualised a programme tagged “missing migrants” for those who did not survive the journey.”
The Head of Project in International Centre for Migration Policy Development, Ms. Emmerentia Erasmus said what is important is that majority of ECOWAS citizens are caught up in the global migration crisis,” adding that, “there are also legal frameworks to protect the rights of migrants in Europe.”
She explained that the project is very significant because it provides a viable platform to train resource persons in the fight against human trafficking.
The Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs. Beatrice Jedy-Agba, represented by Assistant Director/Head of Press and Public Relations, Mr. Josiah Emerole, said the support of the project to the agency is in two components of training resources centre and development of curricula for basic and senior secondary schools with the National Educational Research and Development Council.
“We believe strongly that at the end of these meetings and the entire project, we will be in a better position to effectively deliver on our mandate of increasing institutional capacity in the fight against human trafficking”, she stated.
The NAPTIP DG explained that the current realities and trends involving the migration crisis call for concerted efforts across board to address the challenges in the West African sub-region.
