Towards promoting regular migration and supporting voluntary returnees in social and economic reintegration, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment has entered an agreement with German Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit GMBH (GIZ) to set up a Nigerian-German Centre for jobs, Migration and Reintegration.
Signing the letter of intent recently, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Bolaji Adebiyi, said the intervention, aimed at addressing irregular migration as well as reintegration of voluntary returnees was timely as several youths have lost their lives in the process of migrating to Europe through Libya, among other dangerous routes.
According to him, “the issue of irregular migration has become a very worrisome issue of concern to the Federal Government of Nigeria, it is really timely that we are making effort through this partnership to address irregular migration and reintegration of voluntary returnees.”
Speaking further, Adebiyi affirmed the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the successful implementation of the agreement, saying, “You can be very sure that on our part we are strongly committed in terms of implementation and we will offer whatever it takes to ensure the successful implementation of this agreement. Information is pivotal, that is why the setting up of a centre that can help in that regard is very germane.”
Earlier in his remarks, the country director of GIZ, Dr. Thomas Kirsch, said that partnership between the two countries was aimed at setting up a Nigerian-German Centre for Jobs, Migration and Re-integration with focus on developing a model of operation to promote regular migration and to support voluntary returnees in social and economic reintegration.
He added that the partnership was aimed at supporting the efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria at curbing and discouraging irregular migration by its citizens as well as help in the reintegration of voluntary returnees