If you are a migrant, stay alive, By Owei Lakemfa

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My primary focus was on migrant labour. For this, I took refuge in the UN special agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which states that: “A migrant worker is a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.”.. I explained that the primary challenges faced by Nigerian migrants is not the lack of protective local and international procedures, laws, conventions and regulations. It is their violation.

A frightening total of 9,757 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach Spain by sea. The Spanish migration group, Camindo Fronteras – Walking Borders, reported that 1,538 of the victims were children and 421 women. These were migrants heading for Spain alone. There are the larger numbers trying to reach other European countries. There are the hordes dying in the Sahara Desert.

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Yet, such dangers are merely the beginning of uncertain migration for 304 million persons worldwide.

So, why these phenomena? What local and international laws protect migrants? What local protections are available for Nigerians abroad? These, under the broad theme of ‘The Rights of Nigerian Migrants Abroad’ were some of the issues I was invited to address on 30 April.

The organisers, including the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and German foundations like GIZ, German Cooperation, and the Nigeria-German Centre, were particular about youths.

I told the audience that all humans have localities where they usually live. But once they move from that to another distinctively different geographical locality, they might be engaging in one form of migration or another.

To me, migration is a natural phenomenon. I also recalled that some major Nigerian cities like Jos, which has tin mines, Enugu that sits on coal mines, Kano with its commerce, and the twin cities of Lagos and Badagry, with fine ports and commerce, were largely built by migrants.

So, generally, a migrant is a person who changes his usual country of residence, irrespective of legal status or reasons for the relocation. Therefore, the fact that a person is regarded or classified as a legal or an illegal migrant, does not change the fact that he is a migrant.

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My primary focus was on migrant labour. For this, I took refuge in the UN special agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which states that: “A migrant worker is a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.”

There is also the ceaseless brain drain of professionals. For instance, there are over 20,000 Nigerian doctors and 10,000 Nigerian academics in the United States alone. Today, given the unpredictable flip flops of the Trump administration, the stay and well-being of some of them cannot be guaranteed, even under international law.

I explained that the primary challenges faced by Nigerian migrants is not the lack of protective local and international procedures, laws, conventions and regulations. It is their violation.

For instance, many Nigerian women employed as domestic servants, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Iraq, are not recruited in accordance with established processes. Rather, illegal rings of local agents carry out the recruitment, in collaboration with similar rings in the receiving countries. So, many of these women end up as modern slaves with no rights whatsoever, including the right to resign or return to Nigeria. The irony is that many of these victims actually pay to be recruited into such slavery, while authorities in both the sending and receiving states look the other way.

There is also the ceaseless brain drain of professionals. For instance, there are over 20,000 Nigerian doctors and 10,000 Nigerian academics in the United States alone. Today, given the unpredictable flip flops of the Trump administration, the stay and well-being of some of them cannot be guaranteed, even under international law.

I explained that the Nigerian Constitution guarantees Nigerians and migrants within its borders, all the major fundamental human rights guaranteed by the UN Fundamental Human Rights Charter.

Also, that the Labour Act provides for employment under virtually all conditions, including the recruitment of Nigerians to work abroad.

The Act requires that to recruit for employment outside Nigeria, international agreements are required, so are the duration of contract and return passages, and procedure, prior to leaving Nigeria. Also required are special terms and conditions of contract, embarkation check, exemption from customs on repatriation, and the right to be accompanied by family at the employer’s expense.

Equally, the Act states that the Nigerian migrant worker has the right to enforce his rights in respect of any breach of any lawful contract made outside Nigeria.

It also provides that: “Whenever a contract made outside Nigeria has been executed in conformity with this Act, it shall be enforced in the same manner as a contract entered into under this Act.”

Comrade Ismail Bello, deputy general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said there is the need for workers wherever they find themselves in the world to join and build unions as they are a powerful defence for the worker. He recalled that when Nigerians were attacked in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) rose to their defence.

I also spoke on the Nigerian National Policy on Labour Migration 2014, which seeks to ensure decent treatment of migrants and their families, and the Nigeria Immigration Act, which impacts on the employment of migrant workers.

The international laws, conventions and regulations, I explained, included the UN Human Rights Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Others include the ILO core conventions on Forced Labour, 1930; Freedom of Association, 1948; Right to Organise, 1949; Right to Collective Bargaining; Convention on Equal Remuneration, 1951; Minimum Wage, 1973 Convention, 1973; Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, 1990; and the Convention Against the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999.

I explained that the Nigerian president cannot be everywhere in the world, which is why an ambassador is appointed to represent him. So, just as the Nigerian Constitution makes it incumbent for the President to advance the welfare and security of every Nigerian, so also has the ambassador the duty to do the same for all Nigerians in any given country he is posted to. As such, the Nigerian, anywhere in the world, has the right to report or call out any ambassador who neglects to do this. This, I said in reply to a question, has become far easier with the advent of the social media.

Mrs Remi Ihejirika, programme manager, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), pointed out policy gaps and incoherence between local needs and the international agenda. She called for the restructuring of migration policies, and emphasised the need for a multi-stakeholder collaboration on migrant labour. She equally called for the establishment of networks to build coalitions which can protect groups like migrant workers and women.

Mrs Ihejirika lamented the phenomenon of casual work which destroyed basic employment relations, and fueled poverty and labour migration. She warned of the global rising tide of anti-immigration sentiments and the need for collective action.

Comrade Ismail Bello, deputy general secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said there is the need for workers wherever they find themselves in the world to join and build unions as they are a powerful defence for the worker. He recalled that when Nigerians were attacked in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) rose to their defence.

The discussions were further enriched by Mrs Sandra Vermuijten-Alonge, GIZ-ZME’s head of programme; Wole Olubanji, also of GIZ; and Maureen Ovie, head, Migrant Resource Centre.

The gathering showed that there is in Nigeria, an incredible knowledge on external migration which needs to be further coordinated in the interests of migrants, the country and humanity.

Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.