Nigeria signs MoU with EU to Tackle Illegal Migration
Opeyemi Oladunjoye
Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the European Union as part of steps to combat illegal migration from Nigeria to Europe.
The EU Ambassador to Nigeria and West Africa, Michel Arrion, revealed in Abuja on Tuesday, that the agreement, titled, “Common Agenda for Migration and Mobility” was signed two months ago in Brussels.
He said: “In each of the documents coming from EU on migration, basically, there are four things we want to do.
“The first one is just to facilitate legal migration and legal mobility also in the field of tourism and in the field of business.
“The second objective of the MoU is to fight illegal migration. Unfortunately, the victims of those illegal networks are sometimes considered as criminals.
“So we must focus on those who are organising those networks of illegal migration, human trafficking in general and other organised crimes.
“The third thing that we are insisting on is to be fully compliant with international law in terms of protection of migrants. This includes the protection of asylum seekers, protection of refugees and protection of IDPs; generally speaking, compliance with international law and compliance with international human rights law.
“The fourth objective is to use migration as a tool for development. The contributions of migrants in the form of remittances to their countries of origin could contribute to such countries’ development.
“We have shared the four strategies with Nigeria, Nigeria is happy with the strategy and we will really work on that. Not only do we work with Nigeria, we believe that by definition, migration is an issue to be addressed at the regional level.”
He also said that the union has plans to develop a better policy dialogue with the Economic Community of West African States and its member-states.
