Theme of the Contest

IOM works in Nigeria to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems, and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need.

IOM aims at supporting all aspects of migration management in Nigeria, including immigration and border governance, labour mobility, protection, recovery, peacebuilding, transitional justice, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. It does so by providing protection, empowerment, access to health and education, social cohesion and life-saving humanitarian assistance, to mobile populations, internally displaced persons, hosting communities and vulnerable migrants such as victims and survivors of trafficking and smuggling, with a particular focus on women, children and persons with specific needs.

At international level, Nigeria has engaged into international migration discussions and plays a significant role in migration governance. Nigeria has a robust migration governance architecture where programmes are implemented through a whole of Government and society approach. The country has ratified multiple conventions related to the rights of migrants, as well as to combat trafficking in persons, smuggling of migrants, and other migration-related matters.

On the national stage, however, Nigeria is facing a decade-long armed conflict-induced displacement. There is a growing understanding that conflict and displacement increases vulnerability to various forms of trafficking in persons, including forced labour, forced marriage, forced begging, domestic servitude and modern slavery.

Displacement and forced migration have devastating impacts on the human rights of individuals and communities. Research on instances of conflict-related human rights violations, such as forced labour, abduction, and trafficking in persons, is likely to be under-reported given issues of shame and stigma.

In Nigeria, IOM continues to support the Federal Government in implementing the National Action Plan on Trafficking in Persons with a specific focus on strengthening the criminal justice response to trafficking in persons, promote protection, enhancing prevention, increasing international cooperation with transit and destination countries, and promoting research and analysis of trafficking in persons and smuggling of migrants.

As a strategic priority to mitigate adverse drivers of irregular migration and promote an effective provision of protection and assistance to affected and vulnerable populations, IOM Nigeria aims to:

• Scale up its engagement with local communities to raise public awareness on the dangers of irregular migration, smuggling of migrants, identification of the different forms of trafficking in persons and protection of potential victims and victims of trafficking;
• Build up the government capacity, humanitarian actors and civil society engagement to combat criminal organizations and individuals involved in perpetrating human trafficking as well as improve humanitarian programmes for victims and potential victims and vulnerable population;
• Improve capacity-building for the early detection of at-risk and potential individuals and victims, as well as enhancing access to reporting mechanisms and referral pathways to ensure victims have access to justice through strengthened accountability;
• Address the vulnerabilities and expand support and social protection mechanisms for victims of trafficking in persons and survivors of gender-based violence (GBV).