By Rakiya A.Muhammad
“I am already dead here in Nigeria; if I take the risk, I have a 50 per cent chance of making it to my destination,” a Nigerian youth posits as he bares his mind on irregular migration.
“I will rather take the risk,” he insists, a position several others share despite the dangers of taking the unlawful route through the deserts and across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Analysts identify poverty, unemployment, and social inequalities as major drivers of irregular migration and human trafficking, a multi-billion dollars global business.
Nigeria remains a source, transit and destination country for traffickers who use all means to lure their victims. It is a country with a high youth unemployment rate of 42.5 per cent and limited options for regular migration.
DEADLIER JOURNEYS
But the UNHCR warns Mediterranean Sea journeys for migrants have grown more deadly, describing the situation as a “widespread, longstanding and largely overlooked tragedy.”
A new report by the International Organisation on Migration (IOM) Missing Migrants Project shows at least 5,684 deaths on migration routes to and within Europe since the beginning of 2021.
“At least 2,836 deaths and disappearances were documented on the Central Mediterranean route since 2021(As of October 24), an increase compared to the 2262 deaths recorded between 2019 -2020,” the report indicates.
“On the West Africa-Atlantic route to the Spanish Canary Islands,1532 deaths were documented in the reporting period, a figure already higher than any two-year -period since IOM began documenting deaths in 2014.”
The report’s author, Julia Black, adds they recorded over 29,000 deaths during migration journeys to Europe since 2014.
“These continuing deaths are another grim reminder that more legal and safe pathways to migration are desperately needed,” she stresses.
PUSH PULL FACTORS
“There are a lot of push factors such as huge levels of youth’s unemployment, high level of poverty, as well as insecurity, above others, “notes Dr Arome Salifu, Executive Director of Africa Youth Growth Foundation (AYGF).
“So, we call on the government to address these push factors to reduce the cases and temptation to leave the country at all costs.”

The non-government organisation aims to contribute to positive change in the economic and social status of Africans, the poor, vulnerable and minorities, with migration as one of its thematic areas.
LEVERAGING INFORMANTION
“As an organisation, we believe that every young person has the right to migrate, live where they want to live, the right to aspire and meet up with those aspirations within the confines of the law,” Salifu says.
“To this extent, we introduced the Migration Information and Communications Campaign, MICC, to enlighten the critical minds of young Nigerians and adults to appreciate the regular pathways and the dangers inherent in embarking on irregular pathways, leading to their vulnerability to being trafficked.”
The MICC also provides information about countries that offer opportunities for skilled labour.
“We know having the right information can help make a difference.
Just as they say, information is power –you can tell your left from your right, the thin line between ignorance and awareness, life and death at some point,” states Abbah Abbah of MICC.
“At AYGF, we have MICC centres and a hotline where the public can call in and ask important migration-related questions if they want to travel. Sometimes you need to verify some opportunities.”
The idea, he says, is to ensure the public is aware of migration-related issues because “AYGF has taken this area of migration seriously, part of its work, mandate to ensure people are correctly informed. ”
Abbah adds: “We share such information and make people understand it’s easier to travel as a regular migrant than as an irregular migrant.
“We inform people about the hazards of irregular migrants; we do investigation, we work with IOM, we work closely with those organisations who are key to international migration.”
Chair Board of Trustees United Nations Voluntary Trust Funds for Victims in Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF) Dame Juli Okah-Donli also believes ignorance is a significant factor in irregular migration.
She underscores the importance of information campaigns to help enlighten people and deter them from attempting irregular migration.
“During my job, I found out that ignorance had like 90 per cent to play,” she says while underlining the need to strengthen awareness at the grassroots, where traffickers deceive many unsuspecting victims.
Reports are rife with parents mounting pressure on their children to travel abroad and make money to care for the rest of the family.

“If not for sensitisation using technology and other means, human trafficking would have assumed an epidemic proportion in the country,” Edo State Zonal Commandeer National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Nduka Nwanene points out.
NAPTIP collaborates with local, regional, and international stakeholders towards tackling the root causes of human trafficking, carrying out awareness campaigns and sensitisation “deliberately designed to educate people about human trafficking, its violence and what drives it, especially at the sub-national levels.”
It does this through community-centred awareness creation, survivors’ advocacy campaigns, school campaigns, digital media campaigns and traditional media campaigns.
NAPTIP Director- General Dr Fatima Waziri reveals the agency is partnering with Facebook and the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, to enhance tracing and diligent investigation of all cases relating to online child abuse, human trafficking, and other related crimes.
“Between September 2021 and May 5, 2022, the agency has received 27,094 reports from Facebook on sextortion (child exploitation) from Nigeria using the different social media platforms.”
But many wonder about the impacts of such campaigns on potential migrants’ perception of irregular migration.
A survey in Benin city, described as the epicentre of irregular migration from Nigeria, found that providing potential migrants with new relevant information that pertains to their individual decision to migrate can educate them of the risk they face and impact their propensity to undertake a difficult journey.
“The survey revealed potential migrants are well informed about the features and benefits of their destination, many of whom want to leave Nigeria due to lack of opportunities to earn an adequate, fair income,” explains the researcher Alexandra Scacco-Senior Research Fellow and Vice Director Institution and Political Inequality Unit at the Berlin Social Science Center.
“However, potential migrants were relatively poorly informed about the features of the migration journey itself and were over optimistic about their chances of successfully migrating along the Mediterranean route.”
She notes some people invest in trying to get information. Still, some powerful and influential traffickers distort the information environment and are barriers to assessing balanced details on how expensive and risky the trip is.
“Narratives are highly skewed towards success stories; it is easy to find Nigerian migrants who, for example, reached Sicily, and you can find them on Instagram showing photos of new friends, delicious foods and adventures they are having. Still, people stuck in prisons are not communicating their narratives,” she points out.
“Interestingly, the skewing happens along tight social networks, even within households.
During my research, we heard stories of people who had reached Italy, for instance, and who were embarrassed to talk about their actual living conditions with their parents if things hadn’t turned out as they hoped or almost because they didn’t want to give a lot of information for fear of pressure to redistribute the few resources that they had.”
She adds these combined to make it easier to find information about success stories and harder to find accurate information about the less successful stories and what happens.
MIGRATION GOVERNANCE
However, stakeholders have underscored the need for Nigeria to ensure enhanced partnerships with other countries and better migration governance towards stemming the menace beyond the information campaign.
They laud such agreements as that signed between Nigeria and the UK in July this year. The deal would see the two countries develop better working relations and expertise in tackling illegal migration and promote the economic activities of citizens in both countries.
Analysts note legal migration boost employment and academic progress, financial independence and cultural export while also acknowledging the contributions of Nigerians in the Diaspora.

“Our diaspora are an indisputable economic factor and are becoming an investment factor in the country,” says Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chair of Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM).
She notes an increase in remittances in quarter one of 2022 to 5.16 billion dollars from 4.29 billion dollars in 2021, representing a 20.3% rise.
The increased remittances, she adds, were the seventh consecutive quarterly increase since the last quarter of 2020
“Diaspora is probably Nigeria’s biggest unexplored development opportunity,” notes the Head of Office at the IOM-UN Migration Agency in Lagos, Nigeria.
“But to reach a substantial involvement, we have to build trust and develop concrete cooperation mechanisms. At @IOM_Nigeria, we are fully prepared to support this.”
IOM global facts and figures show the organisation has helped 1.7m migrants to return home since 1979 and has assisted 100,000 trafficked persons since the mid-1990s.
According to IOM Nigeria, as part of promoting migration governance, it works closely with the Federal Government of Nigeria in providing services based on a whole-of-government approach to migration management.
“IOM works on assisted voluntary return and reintegration, labour migration and diaspora policy formulation, migration health, and migrant assistance and protection,” it states.
“IOM Nigeria’s programmes support the organisation’s global mission and the Nigerian government in managing the challenges of migration and welcoming the benefits.”
Recent migration trend indicates several across the globe continue to leave their shores with 258million international migrant. Migrant workers make up 164 million according to the GLOBAL MIGRATION INDICATOR 2021.
“Migrants workers contribute to growth and development in their countries of destination, while countries of origin greatly benefit from their remittances and the skills they acquire during their migration experience,” notes International Labour Organisation (ILO)
“Yet the migration process implies complex challenges in terms of governance, migrant workers’ protection, migration and development linkages and international cooperation.”
It, however, assures of working to forge policies to maximise labour migration benefits for all involved.
“Driven by economic and demographic trends, international migration from Nigeria will continue to increase for the foreseeable future,” notes the World Bank Group and Center for Global Development Report: Expanding Legal Migration Pathways from Nigeria to Europe: From Brain Drain to Brain Gain.
“On what terms this migration happens can be determined through cooperative policies with countries of destination, going forward should be open, safe, and regular, orderly channels for international migration to the benefit of countries of destination and Nigeria alike.”