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Tag: Refugee

  • FG relocates 40 IDPs, refugee households to resettlement city in Keffi

    FG relocates 40 IDPs, refugee households to resettlement city in Keffi

    The Federal Government has relocated 40 Internally Displaced Persons and refugee households comprising over 300 individuals to the resettlement city in Keffi, Nasarawa State.

    The move, according to the Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Tijani Ahmed, is aimed at renewing the hope of the less privileged and providing them with decent accommodation.

    Speaking at the weekend in Keffi resettlement city which is about 60 kilometres from the FCT, Ahmed explained that the beneficiaries were selected based on their willingness to relocate.

    He also disclosed that plans are ongoing to reintegrate the IDPs and refugees into the immediate community, adding that they would be equipped with skills to make them self-reliant.

    He said: “About 40 households, comprising about 300 individuals have been relocated to this place. So, the place has been fully allocated. 

    “We have successfully relocated them to the resettlement city and the next thing we are going to do is to reintegrate them with the immediate community. 

    “We visited the Emir of Keffi to inform him of this activity in the resettlement city and we hope that by the end of the fasting period, we are going to have an elaborate exercise where those IDPs and refugees that are intended to resettle here in Kefi will all be here and settled and also ensure that we reintegrate them into the community around the city. 

    Read Also: NDLEA busts trans-border drug cartel, arrests four members in Onitsha, Keffi

    “We are going to equip them with some trade, we will make sure that they learn a trade so that they can have what they can live on for their livelihood and in addition to that, at the end of the day we will make the refugees, who are our major mandate, get adequate protection and assistance.

    “We are going to provide them with greenhouses where they can farm some little things. The market has also been provided within the camp so that whatever they can produce, the excess will be taken to the market to have something that probably they cannot get on the farm.

    Ahmed added: “Already arrangements have been made with the security in the state, including the SUBEB of Nassarawa state, where they will learn us with some of their teachers and then the primary health care development agencies; some of their staff will take care of their health. 

    “We are doing this to ensure that the Renewed Hope Agenda that President Tinubu has promised Nigerians is a reality. 

    “We are here to raise hope as directed by Mr. President.

    “I thank President Tinubu for giving these people hope after their hope has been despaired and we will continue to raise the hopes of the less privileged”.

    He also hinted that more houses would be constructed in the city to accommodate more people.

    “This process is a continuous process. We intend to have additional houses here because we can see that the resettlement city is very viable. So we are going to add more houses so that more of them will be relocated to this place. 

    On the selection process and how long the beneficiaries are expected to stay in the city, he said: “They were brought here voluntarily. If you indicate that you want to remain in the city, we will profile you and then we allocate a house to you.We didn’t force anybody to be here. They made a choice to stay here, and that is why we profiled them and brought them to the resettlement city in Keffi, and they are free to stay here as long as they want to”. 

  • It’s World Refugee Day

    IR: Today June 20, the global community commemorates the World Refugee Day. On December 4, 2000, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in its unanimous resolution decided that from 2001, June 20 of every year would be celebrated as World Refugee Day. In the resolution, the General Assembly noted that 2001 marked the golden jubilee or the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the status of Refugees.

    Each year on June 20, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and countless civic groups around the world host World Refugee Day events in order to draw public attention to the millions of refugees and people who are internally displaced worldwide.

    Statistics show that not less than 43 million people worldwide are presently displaced as a result of conflict and persecution, which is the highest number since the middle of 1990s. More than 15 million of the aforementioned figure are refugees who fled their home countries, while the rest are people who remain displaced by conflict within their own homelands and they are generally regarded as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    Worldwide, refugees have really suffered an untold hardship in the respective camps or localities they are being hosted or they found themselves; they mostly lack the three basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. Most of them are often killed by deadly diseases, or hazards attached to the environment they reside in.

    Since refugees are mainly victims of either manmade or natural disasters, there is a compelling need to take appropriate and drastic measures that would thoroughly address all forms of disaster or conflict witnessed by mankind virtually on a daily basis.

    As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the 16th commemoration of the World Refugee Day, there’s a compelling need for the various civil society organizations as well as religious bodies to embark on a massive and rigorous awareness crusade that would educate the entire public on the dangers inherent in any form of crisis, which will go a long way to bring a holistic attitudinal change among the overall citizenry. Think about it!

     

    • Comr Fred Doc Nwaozor,

    Owerri, Imo State.

  • Malaysia turns down UN plea to allow refugees to work

    Malaysia had insisted that it would not allow refugees to work in that country, in spite of a plea by the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).

    Ismail Muttalib, the Malaysian Human Resources Deputy Minister, told that country’s Senate on Wednesday in Kuala Lumpur that allowing the more than 150,000 refugees and asylum-seekers in the country to work could create more employment problems.

    The Malaysian UNHCR representative had on Monday gone to that country’s Senate to ask legislators to allow UNHCR cardholders to have a work permit.

    Muttalib, however, said the country might be flooded with cardholders to a point that controlling their entry would be a problem.

    He said that presently, there were already 1.9 million foreign workers in Malaysia and an estimated more than one million illegal workers.

    Malaysia, one of the more developed countries in South-East Asia, was a favourite destination of workers from its less developed neighbours such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia.

  • UN refugee agency appeals for $6.23b

    The United Nations Human Right Council (UNHRC) has warned donors at the agency’s annual pledging conference that the world’s humanitarian financing system was close to bankruptcy.

    The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, stated this on Wednesday as he presented the total financial requirements of 6.23 billion dollars for 2015.

    According to him, this is larger than any previous budget.

    “More people are fleeing war, violence and persecution than ever before.

    “Emergencies in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Syria are turning into protracted displacement situations,” Guterres said.

    It said that, while 2013’s conference saw 671.6 million dollars promised by donors, this year’s figure was down by over a quarter, with 500.8 million dollars in pledges tabled.

    It noted that although the figure promised during the conference did not cover all the agency’s needs, pledges were important as they gave the organisation a vital funding indication.

    “We need additional and more predictable ways of funding these emergencies.

    “The gap between needs and available humanitarian funding was widening in the face of a population forcibly displaced people that had doubled over the last five years,” Guterres warned.

    He said UNHCR’s financial needs have more than doubled in the last five years, noting that the agency receives only a small annual contribution from the UN regular budget.

    He also stated that the agency’s programmes were almost entirely funded by voluntary contributions from government and private donors.

    The statement said that in 2014, the 3.19 billion dollars in contributions that UNHCR received was less than half the amount needed.

    “More structural and development support is needed to help communities host refugees fleeing war and violence,” the UNHCR chief added.

  • Emergency: 1,500 refugees fled to Cameroon, says Nigerian Envoy

    The Nigerian Ambassador to Cameroon, Ambassador Hadiza Mustapha has disclosed that about 1,500 refugees have fled from the three northern states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe to the northern part of Cameroon following the State of Emergency rule declared by President Goodluck Jonathan in May.

    Speaking with journalists in her office in Yaounde, She denied the media reports which claimed that the refugees were over 3000 persons.

    According to her, the figure of 1,500 as confirmed by the UN Refugee Commission and the Cameroonian authorities in the region is the correct figure.

    She also maintained that the cooperation between both countries securities has checked the activities of Boko Haram terrorists and that the Cameroonian government has magnanimously granted the refugees unlimited stay until the situation normalise in their states.

    She said: “What I have seen in the media is over 3000 refugees in the northern part of the Cameroon. But when we asked the authorities there, we were told they are 1,500 and the UN Refugee Commission is taking care of them.”

    “What is also good which is also an indication of good relationship is that, unlike in some countries that they will give the refugees just a few days or weeks or months to leave their territory once there is normalisation in those areas, because these are people who have come in as a result of the operations that is going on, but the authorities have told us that our people are here, the UN system is looking after them, and they have not given us deadline to get our people back to Nigeria.”

    “We are going to visit the north after this summit and also get in touch with the Nigerian authorities handling that. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), has already been in touch with us and we have given them this information. So it is under control”.

    “There is a saying that you cannot choose your neighbours but you share both the good and the bad with your neighbours. It is true that we have seen not only with the Boko Haram insurgency but with the declaration of State of Emergency, a few refugees who have come into the Cameroon.”

    “This is what happens, as long as you cannot choose your neigbour but you can choose how you live with your neigbour, that is why peace is very important. And since I have been here 10 months and since we put the Bakassi issue behind us, there has been a lot of improvement in our relationship.”

    “And with that improvement and with that peace, a lot of cooperation is now possible. In the area of terrorism, there is a lot of cooperation between our security agencies and that of the Cameroonian security agencies in terms of exchange of information even in joint operations.”

    She went on: “They have also given us quite a lot of support, sometimes we have even had exchange of suspected persons. Like you rightly noted, this is all possible because of the peace that now exist between us.”

    “A lot of things is possible because both countries security agencies are co-operating very well. In fact they have exchange quite a lot of visits and meetings, we have to firm up the cooperation some more by going beyond just Nigeria and Cameroon and making it multi-lateral because as you know there is also Chad Republic.”

    “There is a border between Nigeria and Chad and between Cameroon and Chad. Secondly, we have also signed a trans-border security agreement with Cameroon. That is a very good document, is good achievement because in that document we have virtually agreed to exchange information, do joint operation, help each other to deport suspected criminals.”

    “It is not for terrorism alone, it is for all other trans-national or trans-border criminal activities. This has also contributed to a lot of economic and political relations”.

    According to her, four million Nigerians living in Cameroon are very well behaved, hardworking, law abiding and holding the economy of Cameroon together in critical areas.

    On the reported harrassement of Nigerians by the Cameroon Jandams, Ambassador Mustapha said that while this was true in the past, there has been great improvement in the relations between the Nigerian community and their host authorities.

    “You know the story of the Cameroons and the Cameronian Jandams, is a story we know right from when we were growing up. I come from a border town so I know. It is true that they are some high handedness, that the Jandams doesn’t seem to have a very good reputation but this is not only with Nigerians.”

    “There were a lot of these cases in the past but like I said with the improvement in the relationship, I have spoken with all the security agencies over these concerns and I have been given assurances and I have no reason to doubt the assurances that I have been given, that no Nigerian will be targetted specifically because he is a Nigerian. All they want is for us to sensitise our population to be law abiding.”

    “But they (Camernoonian authorities) admitted and this is not a secret that there has been a lot of reforms. You know like with our own police too there are some areas of problems like lack of skills, bad eggs. So they have seen and admitted that they are bad eggs and they are doing a lot to reform. Like I said there is marked improvement and you are free to confirm from Nigerians living here. We have had cases that we have taken to them and their responses were very good. You know is not always easy to change bad behaviour over night. Some Nigerians have noticed that a lot of the harassments which is always on immigration, residence permit have reduced”. She stated

    END

  • Person of the year The Nigerian “Refugee”

    Person of the year The Nigerian “Refugee”

    IT was a year of trinity, even from the beginning. It began with three evils: a subsidy removal, a fuel hike and, in consequence, a paralysis. As the nation shut down, strikes rumbled in Lagos and some other fragile areas and people stayed at home and President Jonathan swaggered with intransigence, we thought the year would be redefined only by another trinity: a fuel crisis, an angry people and a stubborn president.

    But in-between came another trio: water, wind and fire. But the last became the first. Boko Haram struck not once, not twice but many times even though they fell ominously silent during the strikes in January. It was as though they bowed to the first trinity. In a foul and macabre feast, the strikes swept from Borno to Abuja to Kaduna to Kogi like a display of blood and death. Its register was fire: bombs, guns and knives. Another trinity.

    It happened all year long. Soldiers died, police fled, worshippers fainted, defied and died, a security chief first complained in public and later lost his job, a president retreated inside Aso Rock. But mostly people were displaced. Southern governors sought the return of their “people.” Ethnic rhetoric inflamed more ethnic rhetoric. But mostly people fled. Markets became skeletal, churches wary and pastors invoking deity before a shrinking followership. Those born in the north, and those who had relocated there for business and those who had no other ways of life than the ones they knew either in Kano or Maiduguri or Sokoto, were stunned between stark choices: fight, wait to die or flee. Another awful trinity.

    It was a time that tested the unity of the country. Northern governors sought answers, held meetings, appealed and cajoled, but could not do what was necessary: stop the menace. The silence of southern leaders was as ominous as those who banged the doors for a national conference. It raised questions about state police, integrity of security budget and above all, the competence of a president who reacted to the news of carnage with another trinity: surrender, nonchalance – he left for Brazil after one of them – and bluster.

    In the midst of this was the combination of water and wind. Nigeria, just like the malice of Hurricane Sandy in the United States, saw flood. It came not only in the south, not only in east, not only in the west, not only in the north. It was fury without borders.

    In a bizarre replay of Boko Haram, houses fell, only not by fire. People fled their homes. Villages and homesteads vanished in watery tombs. It had no respect for the high and mighty, for the jalopy or cocky limousines. They were huddled in camps. In the camps, women delivered babies, men and women made love, old and young played and fought, scrambled for food rations, slept in makeshift beds. Fishes swam where families sat for dinner, hippopotamuses became threats before they inspired feasts. Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan risked life paddling a canoe in a symbolic gesture to the displaced.

    While water, wind and fire raged, the other trinity inflicted their own damages: jobs were lost, subsidy thieves exposed and companies closed, another shrill trinity.

    At bottom, many Nigerians were out of joint, and had to find refuge in places other than where they had comfort. “Something startles where I thought I was safest,” wrote Caribbean writer George Lamming. They became, in a strange irony, refugees at home. Those who fled the north have never found comfort at home in the south. Home was where trouble was. Flood sacked people who never returned to the home as they knew it. It was a case of alienation in body and in spirit. Subsidy-related jobs became as fragile as the homes swept off by flood.

    The refugee, often a term for those who flee their home countries for another, has come to define our year, except that these persons did not find refuge at home. The technical term is internally displaced persons, a wordy and inelegant term. They suffered all the indignities of the year: hunger, joblessness, homelessness, insecurity, bigotry, elemental fury, disenfranchisement and death. In a year of suffering, they embodied the worst.

    For these reasons, The Nation editors have picked the Nigerian “refugee” is our person of the year.