Insecurity: Nigeria Immigration, IOM review border management strategy

The Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, International Organization for Migration, IOM and other stakeholders are reviewing the National Borders Management Strategy, NBMS, as part of efforts to improve security in the country. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day stakeholders’ workshop in Keffi, Nasarawa State on Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede said […]

The Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, International Organization for Migration, IOM and other stakeholders are reviewing the National Borders Management Strategy, NBMS, as part of efforts to improve security in the country.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the two-day stakeholders’ workshop in Keffi, Nasarawa State on Wednesday, the Comptroller General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede said efforts to secure the borders in Nigeria were undergoing transformation.

He said the review was a response to the competing demands of facilitating mobility and managing cross border risks.

Babandede stressed that the NBMS will articulate a renewed vision and approach to effective and efficient border management.

“The strategy takes into full consideration, regional, continental and international aspects of Migration management that directly affect Nigeria’s approach to border management.

“As a lead agency in border management in Nigeria, we are taking the responsibility of reviewing our border management strategy to meet up with modern trends and current challenges in migratory development,” he said.

On his part, the IOM Chief of Mission in Nigeria, Frantz Celestin said the initiative will contribute to strengthening the governance of migration in EU partner countries and the sustainable return and reintegration of returning Nigerian migrants.

Represented at the workshop by Ms. Ukamaka OSIGWE, Celestin said the NBMS “is to take into consideration, the changing realities and new challenges in managing Nigeria’s borders, and will look at border management in light of all of its primary purposes and goals: national security, economic development, migrants’ rights and other main purposes.

He said: “It would also articulate and outline the intersection between NIS’ responsibilities at the border and those of other concerned agencies for further complementarity of action through Integrated Border Management approaches.”

According to him, stakeholders at the workshop will take into consideration, the special needs of cross-border communities with common heritage and close family ties across national boundaries and the special considerations of managing borders in certain areas with significant security challenges.

The stakeholders are to validate the NBMS, which will run from 2019 to 2023, at the end of the workshop.