The Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS has stated that it is committed to raising awareness and promoting actions towards achieving gender equality, preventing all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse.

       

          CGI Idris Isah Jere.

Gender mainstreaming and prevention of all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse of women was the focus of a workshop in Lagos for the personnel and officers of the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS.

       

    R-L:Comptroller Adeola Adesokan, MMIA, Command Ikeja, Lagos and ACI Adekemi Ojo, Migration Directorate Service, Headquarters at the workshop.

At a workshop in Lagos on Thursday, 27th of April 2023, with the theme, “Modernizing Nigeria Immigration Service/Gender Equity Sensitization” (MoNIS) is a project funded by the Denish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, (ICMPD)

       

           DCI Ojo and other officers at the workshop.

ACI Adekemi Ojo, Migration Directorate Service,  Headquarters, Abuja (NIS-ICMPOD FOCAL PERSON) who represented the Comptroller –General Isah Idris Jere commended the CG for his interest and commitment in promoting gender mainstreaming and equality in the service.

   

  Cross-section of participants at the workshop.

According to her, the CGIS upon the celebration of the 2023 International Women’s Day requested the gender unit of the HRM Directorate to continue with activities on Gender Mainstreaming in the NIS, adding that the workshop has been with the aim of raising awareness and promoting action towards achieving gender equality, preventing all forms sexual exploitation and abuse as well as domesticating the activities of the MoNIS project.

ACI Ojo described Gender mainstreaming as an essential aspect of development that recognizes the different needs and priorities of men and women in society which involves ensuring that issues related to gender are integrated into all policies, programmes, and activities and that women and men have equal access to resources and opportunities.

   

In her welcome address, ACI Ojo described sexual exploitation and abuse as serious issues that affect men and women, boys and girls which are prevalent in various sectors, including its impact on humanitarian aid, peacekeeping, and development, stressing that it is crucial to address these issues and strive towards enhancing or even eradicating them, where possible.

“This workshop is a crucial initiative to sensitize us all to take action towards gender inequality and ending sexual exploitation and abuse,” she stressed. She expressed the gratitude of the CG, management, officers, and men of NIS to ICMPO for their contributions to the operations of the NIS.

On her part, the Comptroller, Mrs. Adeola Adesokan, Comptroller Muritala Internations Airport Command, ikeja Lagos, noted that the workshop was coming at the right time, and called on the participants to consider the opportunity as a privilege and maximize the knowledge in service to the public particularly victims of sexual exploitation and forced labour. She described sexual exploitation as a global menace, which requires requisite knowledge to handle. In her words.

“Therefore, when you are trained and when you are aware of what is happening around, it will go a long way. Contemporary migration is a global menace and in Nigeria, NIS is the foremost agency at the forefront of migration.

“When you talk about forced labour globally, the women are at the forefront of it, nobody can eradicate house-helps, we must also realize that women are at the forefront of violence and sexual harassment by the husbands of those who employ them. If you go further, the people used for prostitution, and forced sex labour are also women. We will not stop at that, I also want you to know that there’s something called baby-factory.

   

“The truth is that the NIS is the first port of call, we hear their stories first hand, and we counsel them particularly those who had gone through these evils that we are here to do sensitization on.

“I want you to take this workshop seriously because it’s there that you will see a young girl that will hold you on your shoulder and say I was messed up by animals, I went for a greener pasture, on getting there, I was told that this is the person that is my husband and I said I did not come here for husband.

“For the officers who can be counselors, we tell them that in the journey of life, you can meet potholes but that does not mean the end of the journey, after all when your car enters a pothole, won’t you continue life and start traveling back? So we give them hope at the point of entry.

“So, when this workshop came up, we need counselors, we need gender balancing, we need rehabilitation centres, we need counseling centres, we have seen people who returned and they are going back again, why, because they don’t know what to do.
“And everything I’m talking to you about is enshrined in the NIS.

Act-rehabilitation centre, resettlement centre, sensitization programme. We need to go to schools to set up clubs where we can discourage young innocent girls from going into second-degree of slavery. This workshop is an opportunity to deliver the future of this country from this menace.”

Also speaking,  ACG Kehinde Adebowale Rasaq, in charge of zone A who was ably represented by DCI Ojo commended the NIS for bringing the workshop at this point in time to equip its personnel and charged participants to take the workshop seriously because the NIS is in the forefront.

In his words, “women are vulnerable, can be cajoled to travel abroad especially young woman from the middle East and are mostly the victims of sexual exploitation”. which he described as a global menace which Nigeria is not insulated from. He explained further, “young women are persuaded, brainwashed to travel abroad, when they promised to offer them jobs, accomodation whereas on getting there, their phones, passports would be seized, and they are exploited, subjected into sexual molestation, forced labour, modern slavery, forced marriages, human trafficking and organ harvesting”.

To buttress his points, he said “an example of some students from the East in 2022, about 180 of them were promised to gain admission to study abroad without any letter of admission and no passport to travel, i wondered how they were able to convince their parents”.

He enjoined the officers to try their best to help them not to fall victims of circumstances. He noted, “the purpose of this seminar is to create awareness to curb the complex crime like all these, as you all return to their respective offices”.

Cross-section of participants at the workshop.

 

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