Nigerian authorities have started to build the third refugees camp in Cross River State for Cameroonian refugees due to increasing number of refugees fleeing hostilities in their home country into parts of Nigeria.
The Comptroller of Immigration in the State command of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Okey Ezugwu, disclosed this over the weekend when he hosted a four-man delegation from the Switzerland government.
The delegation came to inspect immigration projects, such as the immigration Personnel Training Resource Centre (PTRC) funded by their government.
There were two refugees camps in the state; the one in Ogoja Local Government Area and in Akamkpa Local Government Area.
The third one is to be cited in the central senatorial district of the state.
Speaking last week on the occasion of the Humanitarian Development Nexus meeting between the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), state ministries and international agencies, head of the UNHCR sub-office in the state, Mr Mulugeta Zwedie, confirmed that there were 51,723 Cameroonian refugees in Nigeria, 65% of them in Cross River State.
He said the Ogoja camp is the largest refugees settlement in West Africa.
Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Eteng Jonas Williams, disclosed that the state had given 100 hectares of land to enable Cameroonian refugees farm with a support of N800 million to ease their burdens.
