Travel agents in Nigeria are encouraging irregular migration through their misleading advertisements in the media, according to Prof. Aderanti Adepoju.
Prof Adepoju, who is a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) consultant, made this submission while presenting his report during the UNHCR stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
He said the agents make bogus claims that were misleading prospective migrants from Nigeria who ended up taking the unofficial routes to their destinations.
“They will tell you that you can go to Oman without a visa but that is not true,” Prof Adepoju said.
While blaming the broadcast media organisations in the country for providing air space for such false advertisements, he called on the federal government to clamp down on such media organisations.
Also, Prof Adepoju lamented that the troubles being faced by intending migrants in getting visa were responsible for their choice of illegal means.
He said: “The visa fees are high and all payments made are not refundable. The annoying part is that an applicant can be denied visa with very flimsy excuses.”
On her part, the UNHCR’s Deputy country representative, Mrs Brigitte Mukanga-Eno said plans were underway to tackle the root causes of irregular migration in Nigeria.
She said unemployment and economic hardships were few of the root causes of irregular migration by Nigerians, saying most of them were leaving to seek greener pastures.
“What we are looking at is how we can facilitate a number of programmes that would help the country in identifying root causes of these movements and try to tackle them already from home,” she said.
Prof Adepoju is currently leading a team to work on an Asylum and Migration strategy for UNHCR Nigeria that will help facilitate regular migration in the country.
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