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Tag: asylum

  • FG to provide accommodation to urban refugees, asylum seekers 

    FG to provide accommodation to urban refugees, asylum seekers 

    The Federal Government has disclosed plans to provide accommodation to urban refugees and asylum seekers living in Abuja.

    The Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Tijani Ahmed, also said the refugees would be trained in farming, phone repairs and other skills to make them self-reliant and alleviate their plight.

    Ahmed disclosed this in Abuja during a meeting with the refugees, asylum seekers and other stakeholders.

    Some of the refugees and asylum seekers are from Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central Africa, South Africa and others.

    According to the refugees, their plight includes poor access to healthcare, lack of financial empowerment, inability to pay rent, lack of access to education, unrecognised travel papers and documents and discrimination.

    Read Also: Fleeing Syrian President, family granted asylum in Russia

    On how their problems would be tackled, the Federal Commissioner said: “We have an IDP resettlement City in Keffi, Nasarawa State, and we just renovated it. With their cries for need of shelter and inability to pay their rent, they should stay in the camp. Qe have free accommodation for them in Keffi which is about 60 kilometres from Abuja.

    “The resettlement camp has clinics, markets, police stations, schools and other facilities. So, I think it is a better option for them rather than remaining in Abuja where they don’t have money to renew their rents. We will liaise with the Divisional Police Officer in Keffi to provide adequate security.

    “They would be trained in farming, repairs of telephones and other skills. These are some lucrative areas we can engage them to make their lives better.”

    He noted that the Commission would profile those interested and allocate the houses to them.

    He also promised to engage the Nigeria Immigration Service to resolve the issues with their travel document.

    “We have made arrangements to engage with NIS to address the issues raised by the refugees, particularly in the area of the conventional travel documents. We will resolve it by the grace of God after the holiday”.

  • Germany agrees to consider UK-style plan on processing asylum abroad

    Germany agrees to consider UK-style plan on processing asylum abroad

    People seeking asylum in Germany may be taken to other countries if the proposal scales through, The Nation has learnt.

    German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has pledged to “examine” whether asylum applications could be processed abroad.

    This is a hardened stand of the government’s position on illegal migration, as parties seek to counter electoral gains by the far right.

    The UK was first to have muted the idea with Rwanda, where migrants in Britain may be sent to claim asylum right to remain.

    However, the process is still being contested in the UK courts.

    The idea emerged from the marathon session with regional leaders in Germany in the early hours of Tuesday, November 7.

    Read Also: Reps to Army: neutralise terrorist attack on Borno, Yobe communities

    The agreement already has the buy-in of the leaders of Germany’s 16 states.

    He cautioned: “The federal government will examine whether the protection status of refugees can also be determined in transit or third countries in the future, in compliance with the Geneva Convention on Refugees and the European Convention on Human Rights.”

    “It’s vague and non-committal, as was Chancellor Scholz during the press conference. There are also a whole series of legal questions.”

    There are many practical questions about how such a scheme would be put into effect, but the prospect of processing asylum claims abroad is now being more openly discussed in Germany.

    Neighbouring Austria recently expressed interest in a similar scheme.

    Hendrik Wüst, the Christian Democratic (CDU) premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, warned against dismissing Rwanda-style schemes as “sinister neo-colonialism.”

    He said: “If you do that, we will not meet the challenges of a global migration crisis.”

    Proposals have also emerged from within the ranks of the governing Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Free Democratic Party (FDP).

    They range from reviving the 2016 EU-Turkey deal, which stemmed the influx of migrants into Greece, to setting up new agreements with Senegal, Morocco or Rwanda.

    It is unclear whether successful applicants could then proceed to Germany or would have to stay in the third country in which their claim was processed.

  • Taraba woman held for ‘housing Cameroonian asylum seekers’

    Taraba woman held for ‘housing Cameroonian asylum seekers’

    The Federal High Court, Abuja, has fixed March 2  to hear a suit filed by a Taraba State indigene, Mrs Augustine Winifred, challenging her detention by the police, following “an order from above”.

    Winifred’s lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), is praying the court to declare her detention at the police headquarters in Abuja unconstitutional.

    According to him, Winifred was arrested for allegedly accommodating Cameroonian refugees.

    Falana is also seeking an order compelling the police to release four naturalised Nigerians from Cameroon, namely: Dr John Ojong Okongho, Nsoh Nabowah Bih, ThankGod Genesis and Nasiru Bah.

    They were arrested by the military alongside 47 Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers.

    Okongho, Bih, Genesis and Bah were transferred to the police while 47 others were deported.

    The court will, same day, hear another suit filed by Falana, challenging the deportation of the 47 Cameroonians, some of whom Winifred allegedly accommodated.

    The Nation learnt that when Falana and Edo State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Abdul Oroh, visited the police station for the release of Winifred and the four other detainees, the police officers on duty reportedly declined.

    They allegedly told Falana and Oroh that the detainees were being held “on orders from above”.

    Last January 7 in Abuja, the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested several leaders of an Anglophone Cameroonian secessionist group for their agitation for Ambazonia Republic.

    Their group, the Movement for the Independence of Southern Cameroonians, is agitating for an independent Ambazonia state.

    Last night, we confirmed that the 4 naturalised Nigerians – -Dr John Ojong Okongho, Nsoh Nabowah Bih, ThankGod Genesis, and Nasiru Bah – were not deported to Cameroon with 47 Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers. They were reportedly transferred from military custody to police custody at asokoro, Abuja.

  • Germany reviews two thousand asylum cases

    The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) is reviewing some 2,000 asylum cases, amid far-right terror plot scandal, the Interior Ministry said on Friday.

    The ministry said that decision was taken after revelations that a suspected right-wing extremist army officer posing as a refugee was granted asylum in the country .

    It said that the BAMF is reviewing the cases in order to find out whether there are systemic problems such as inadequate background checks and screening.

    “The decision to grant asylum to Franco A. a lieutenant stationed in France who successfully registered as a refugee in Germany despite speaking no Arabic was a “flagrant error.

    “That is not allowed to happen.

    “The asylum cases that are being reviewed include 1,000 Afghans and 1,000 Syrians who were granted permission to stay in Germany between Jan. 1 and April 27, 2016,’’ the ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth said.

    The controversy started a week ago with the arrest of Franco A, a 28-year-old army lieutenant who created a fake identity as Syrian refugee named “David Benjamin,” allegedly in order to plan terrorist attacks.

    Defence Minister Ursula Leyen has come under fire after it emerged that information about far-right sentiment in the Bundeswehr’s ranks had not reached her ministry.

  • Our plans for Togolese asylum seekers, by Lagos

    Our plans for Togolese asylum seekers, by Lagos

    Lagos State yesterday said the Togolese asylum seekers who it accommodated at its Relief Camp in Igando are safe and sound.

    They had besieged the Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos Office of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) last week.

    The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) General Manager, Mr Michael Akindele, took reporters on a tour of the camp to see how the asylum seekers are faring.

    There are 110 Togolese at the camp, made up of 27 families. Among them are 60 adults (35 males and 25 females) and 50 children (24 males and 26 females).

    There are five furnished dormitories with double beds and mosquito nets, each of which can accommodate between 2000 to 5000 persons.

    Also within the premises is a dinning hall, a kitchen and clinic/sick bay with two doctors and nurses.

    Armed guards provide security, while a Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) official was seen teaching the asylum seekers English language in a large air-conditioned hall.

    The Camp Commandant, Fakilade Olatubosun, said the asylum seekers have been cooperative.

    He said they are fed three times daily. Beside receiving English and Mathematics lessons, they also engage in sporting activities. He said only a few of them speak English.

    Akindele said before being accommodated, each of them were screened by medical experts, and those with serious health problems were referred to the Igando General Hospital and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

    According to him, NCFRMI officials will send an Eligibility Committee today to determine those to be granted refugee status.

    He said: “Last week, Governor Akinwumni Ambode gave a directive that we should move in and relocate them to a secure location.

    “It was borne from his passion for security of lives not minding where they are from but so long as they are already within Lagos,” he said.

    The asylum seekers expressed gratitude to the Lagos State Government for treating them like VIPs.

    One of them, Sogbo Mounou, said they were among opposition members who fled Togo to Benin Republic in 2005 following threats to their lives due to a political crisis during presidential election.

    According to them, the Benin Republic government, after nearly 10 years, did not recognise them as refugees, hence their decision to seek asylum in Nigeria.

    Agbokou Komlan, 42, who has a wife and a child, said they are already in love with Nigerian food, especially “Semo”. “Nigerian soup is nice,” he said.

    Akindele said: “So long as they are in Lagos, they will receive the best treatment. We did not need to obtain approvals before relocating them because it was an emergency situation. Imagine if all this children had been outside till night or if it began to rain.

    “Immediately the Federal Government saw the action of the state government, the NCFRMI Southwest office in Ikoyi informed us about the statutory steps they are also taking.

    “The office is in contact with us. Tomorrow (today), the Eligibility Committee comprising the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), will be visiting the migrants to assess their eligibility status.

    “Until the committee concludes the assessment, we cannot say how long they will be in the camp. We operate with the best international standards.

    “We have a standard clinic with doctors, nurses and pharmacists running a 24-hour shift. We have a caterer on stand-by who cooks their three-square meal. All these are been done out of Governor’s passion for the life of everyone in Lagos.”

  • Australia to send asylum-seekers to PNG

    Australia to send asylum-seekers to PNG

    People arriving by boat to seek asylum will no longer be resettled in Australia but will go to Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced.

    BBC says the news came as Mr. Rudd set out an overhaul of asylum policy ahead of a general election expected shortly.

    Australia has seen a sharp rise in the number of asylum-seekers arriving by boat in recent months.

    Mr. Rudd said the “hard-line decision” was taken to ensure border security.

    It was also aimed at dissuading people from making the dangerous journey to Australia by boat.

    “Our country has had enough of people-smugglers exploiting asylum-seekers and seeing them drown on the high seas,” he said.

    The deal – called the Regional Settlement Arrangement – was signed by the Australian and PNG leaders on Friday.

    Mr. Rudd, who ousted Julia Gillard as Labor Party leader amid dismal polling figures last month, made the announcement in Brisbane flanked by PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

    “From now on, any asylum-seeker who arrives in Australia by boat will have no chance of being settled in Australia as a refugee,” Mr. Rudd said.