Head of the Lagos Sub-office and Senior Programme Coordinator, Migration Management, International Organization For Migration (IOM) Mr Victor Lutenco, has said that partnership with Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, (NIDCOM), to build legal pathways for regular migration has become pertinent and inevitable.
Mr Lutenco stated this during a visit to the Chairman/CEO Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa in Abuja, a statement by the NiDCOM Spokesperson Mr Gabriel Odu noted.
The IOM Programme Chief said the visit to NiDCOM is focused on dealing with emergency situations, humanitarian context, consequences of irregular migration, and trying to provide assistance in terms of rehabilitation and reintegration.
In his words, “building opportunities for legal pathways for migration, so that we reduce the causes, attack the problem at its core, one of the important factors that can contribute towards building those pathways are Nigerians in diaspora”.
For his part, Dr Sule Yakubu Bassi, Secretary to the Commission who received the delegation on behalf of the NiDCOM Boss, said IOM is a great friend and partner to the Commission and has helped with some of the Commission’s programs right from inception, such as midwifing the publication of the National Diaspora Policy, training of Pioneer Staff of NIDCOM, among others.
Dr. Bassi added that NiCOM was set up primarily to engage with the Nigerians in the diaspora, saying the diaspora phenomena is the product of regular migration.
In his words, “There are several overlaps because some irregular migrants sometimes end up to be regular migrants, and sometimes, regular migrants end up also to be irregular migrants”.
The NiDCOM Secretary further said that an estimated number of about 17 million Nigerians are in the diaspora making the country proud in all their endeavors such as Agriculture, Medicine, ICT, Movies, Real Estate, Education and many others.
He appreciated IOM for their technical partnership and requested for even stronger and more robust engagement with the International Organisation for Migration moving forward premised on mutuality and reciprocity.
