[av_heading tag=’h2′ padding=’10’ heading=’NIDOE Endorses Campaign for Safe Migration in Nigeria – Press Statement’ color=’custom-color-heading’ style=” custom_font=’#b02b2c’ size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”][/av_heading]

[av_textblock size=’20’ font_color=” color=”]
———————————————————————————–

The Central Executive Council of Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Europe (NIDOE), after an extraordinary meeting on 6 August 2018, in a follow up to the just concluded Nigerian Global Development conference in London, resolved to endorse and support the efforts of Migration Enlightenment Project Nigeria (MEPN) to promote safe migration in Nigeria.

• NIDOE considers the MEPN’s campaign to raise awareness of the risks and dangers of irregular migration in Nigeria necessary in order to put a stop to the suffering and deaths of young Nigerians in the process of irregular migration.

• NIDOE notes with deep sadness that more than 17,000 persons, many of whom are Nigerians, have perished in the Mediterranean since 2014, according to international organisations. Many more are even believed to have died in the Sahara Desert and transit countries.

• NIDOE considers these unnecessary deaths as a huge loss to Africa and its developmental efforts.

• NIDOE believes that the images of Nigerian irregular migrants in the international media damage the national reputation, thereby hampering the efforts of the government to attract foreign investors and tourists to the country.

• NIDOE also believes that the prominence of Nigerians among irregular migrants in Europe will cause a backlash against legal migration from Nigeria in the receiving countries.

• NIDOE notes that the lack of accurate information about the realities of migration pushes young Nigerians into the hands of people smugglers.

NIDOE therefore calls on all Nigerians living in Europe in particular and all Nigerians in the Diaspora to support the MEPN’s campaign by giving a realistic picture of life in Europe and in the Diaspora to their families and friends at home and provide them with information on legal ways to migrate.

• While NIDOE supports legal migration, it advises young Nigerians to adopt a realistic approach to migration and not to overlook opportunities at home in their quest for self-actualisation.

London, 6 August 2018

Signed:

Engr. Abiodun Ogunsakin

General Secretary – NIDO Europe

and

Rev. Helen Ruth Dorkenoo

PRO/Asst. General Secretary – NIDO Europe
[/av_textblock]