How to stop young Nigerians from travelling abroad — Swiss official

The visiting President of the Swiss Federal Commission on Migration to Nigeria, Walter Leimgruber, on Thursday, enjoined Nigerian governments and the private sector to develop more possibilities for young Nigerians at home.

Mr Leimgruber told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the development of prospective projects and job opportunities for them would discourage them from embarking on illegal migration to Switzerland.

“The view of many young Nigerians of Switzerland is that it is a rich country with a lot of prospectives where they can work, have a decent life and everything.

“But sometimes, they do not see that it is not so easy to get access to all of these.

“Nigerian governments and the private sector need to really begin to develop prospectives, projects, and jobs for the young people at home.

“The more these young people know that there is development in a good direction, the more probably they would stay in their country. They will then be willing to travel on the regular legal way,’’ he said.

Mr Leimgruber, who is leading a delegation of top executives of the commission to Nigeria, said that they were on a fact-finding mission to deepen Nigeria and Switzerland’s migration partnership.

The Professor of Cultural Anthropology said that the commission and the Swiss government had realised that it would take a partnership between both countries to effectively address issues of migration.

Mr Leimgruber, who said that there would always be migration, however, added that it was important for people to embark on regular legal migration than risk their lives through illegal migration.

“We are in Nigeria because we think that this migration partnership between Nigeria and Switzerland is one very interesting project and programme on how international relations in the field of migration can best be handled.

“As a migration commission, we have for many years dealt with internal questions bothering on how to deal with migrants coming to Switzerland. We have also been looking to integrate migrants and put up the asylum system.

“We have realised more and more that we cannot deal with issues of migration alone. We have to work with organisations like the International organization for Migration (IOM), UNHCR, and other partners in countries where these migrants come from,’’ he said. (NAN)