Nigeria has consistently remained committed to the implementation of the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees and its Protocol, as well as other relevant instruments.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq said this in Abuja, Nigeria at the opening ceremony of a two day Humanitarian stakeholders’ meeting on the implementation of the Global Compact for Refugees, GCR.
She said the meeting was to demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to the implementation of the GCR to promote the interest of persons of concern
“On 17th December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees, after two years of extensive consultations led by UNHCR with Member States, international organizations, refugees, civil society, the private sector and relevant experts. Nigeria played an active part in this process and that was a demonstration of global solidarity and commitment to promote the interest of persons of concern, which Nigeria proudly associates with”, she said
According to her, to ensure its effective implementation, the Global Refugees Forum was initiated to enable countries to lay foundations and chart a cause for collective outcomes.
“As you are aware, the world is facing serious humanitarian challenges. Available statistics from UNHCR as at 2019 shows that there are 79.5 million Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), including
25.9 million Refugees and 41.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world as at the end of 2018″.
“In the Lake Chad Basin region, there were over 3.3 million FDPs, comprising over 2.7 million IDPs in North-East Nigeria, 513,000 IDPs in Cameroon, Chad and Niger and 244,000 refugees in the four countries”, the Minister said.
Farouq further stated that Nigeria had the highest number and carries the
heaviest burden of the humanitarian challenge.
“The adoption of GCR is a good omen for Nigeria. It has opened a new vista of opportunities for stakeholders to access support in a timely, predictable and sustainable manner. It creates an incentive for stakeholders to join forces and pool resources to address the humanitarian challenge and to do it with the intention of addressing underlying causes in a sustainable and humane manner”.
“It also enables stakeholders to approach the humanitarian challenge from a durable solution perspective which requires closer, stronger and well-coordinated partnerships and collaborations across all levels of governance”, she emphasized.
“In Nigeria, we have adopted this approach. In our efforts to advance collaboration, we worked with UNHCR and countries in the Lake Chad Basin to host a Regional Protection Dialogue, which led to the Abuja Statement of Action in 2016”, the Humanitarian Minister added.
For its part, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNHCR, said the United Nations General Assembly affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) in December 2018 as an act of solidarity, recognizing the international community’s shared responsibility for protecting, assisting and finding solutions to refugees.
The Country Representative to Nigeria, Ms Chansa Kapaya said despite a significant scale-up of humanitarian response since 2016, more IDPs have been forced to leave their homes with over 2 Million internally displaced while another 300,000 Nigerians displaced externally have sought refuge in the neighbouring Lake Chad Basin countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
“The country has been home to over 61,000 refugees and asylum seekers who have sought refuge from neighbouring Cameroon escaping from political tensions in the South West and North West of the country since 2017. UNHCR and the Government of Nigeria continue to record hundreds of new arrivals every month, these refugees are hosted predominately in the States of Cross River, Benue and Taraba. The Country also hosts some 4,300 urban refugees and asylum seekers living in various urban centers in Nigeria mainly from the DRC, CAR, Cameron, Syria, Turkey, Mali, Cote D’Ivoire and others”.
“In addition, Nigeria faces a protracted humanitarian crisis in northeast Nigeria particularly in the three States of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe which is now over a decade with a cycle of violence and displacements due to insurgency activities of NSAG that continues to create new emergencies”, Kapaya noted
According to her, the Global Compact has four objectives:
- To ease pressure on host countries.
- Enhance refugee self-reliance.
- Expand access to third country solutions and
- Support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.
Kapaya added that the Government of Nigeria’s commitment to the protection of refugees and asylum-seekers has been renewed on many occasions and Nigeria has demonstrated exemplary reception and support towards forcibly displaced populations as evidenced by the progressive commitments it made at the Global Refugee Forum in 2019 for the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees.
“These important pledges pivot around the objective of empowering refugees to be self-reliant while supporting the communities that generously host them”.
Nigeria has committed to the following pledges:
- Include refugees, IDPs and their host communities in government development plans.
- Strengthen national protection capacity.
- Ensure availability and access to durable solutions for refugees and IDPs.
- Continue playing an active role in regional and sub-regional efforts to address the root causes of displacement.
The primary objective of the meeting is to take stock and discuss practical ways to support the government in the implementation of the Pledges and objectives of the Global Compact on Refugees Pledges through a Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework approach in Nigeria.
