PMB Commends Humanitarian Ministry, NCFRMI As FEC Approves SOP for Asylum Seekers

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) for her efforts in creating a standard operation procedure on maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum seekers.

This is also as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by the President approved the memo presented by the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq.

Addressing the Council on Wednesday, the minister singled out the Commission for what she described as novelty and lofty initiative in complementing the national security architecture.

She added that in the prevailing security challenges, all hands must be on deck to smoke out sinister elements of mass displacement in whatever form they manifest in our society.

The SOP is in tandem with the tenets of the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 protocol and the regional 1969 OAU Convention which are domesticated into the NCFR, etc Act, CAP 21, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

The SOPs provides 4 steps procedure for the processing of applicants for asylum who are suspected of having played an active part in the hostilities in an armed conflict namely: Identification and initial determination of combatant status, Separation and internment, Determination of genuine and permanent renunciation of military activities and Refugee Status Determination (RSD).

The minister said: “In 2017, the international community and Nigeria in particular, witnessed the outflow of Cameroonian refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in a mixed migration situation as a result of the simmered separatist struggle by the Anglophone North-west and South-west Regions of the Cameroon Republic.

“Nigeria now hosts over 75, 000 Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers, majority of who are located at the four border States of Taraba, Benue, Cross River and Akwa Ibom.

“The escalation of the armed conflict in Cameroon and the consequent influx of the mixed population into Nigeria have raised concern about the possible presence of combatants/fighters among the Cameroonian asylum seekers.

“Hence, the initiative by the NCFRMI and UNHCR to develop an SOP for maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum in the Cameroonian refugee asylum operation in the country”.

On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, added that due to the insurgency in Cameroon, Nigeria has witnessed an influx of Cameroonian asylum seekers and there are basic standard procedures for anyone to be granted status as an asylum seeker.

“This is what the council considered and approved today. And basically is that anybody from Cameroon who is seeking asylum in Nigeria must first convinced the authorities that he or she has actually renounced armed struggle, before you can even be considered as an asylum seeker.

“Also they are cases of some of them who have come even when they claim to have surrendered their arms, go back at times, to join the separatist movement in Cameroon. So, the procedure was explained and approved today that will evaluate the basic criteria to grant asylum,” he said.

He said with the security challenges in some parts of the country; government was taking the necessary steps to ensure that insurgents or terrorists do not take advantage of asylum to infiltrate Nigeria.

“So, all we have done today is to establish the standard procedure to ensure that those who claim to be asylum seekers are actually not insurgents themselves that have come to destabilize Nigeria or people who will come and be launching attacks against their own country from the comfort of Nigeria,” he said.

President Muhammadu Buhari has commended the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) for her efforts in creating a standard operation procedure on maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum seekers.

This is also as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by the President approved the memo presented by the Honourable Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Hajiya Sadiya Umar Farouq.

Addressing the Council on Wednesday, the minister singled out the Commission for what she described as novelty and lofty initiative in complementing the national security architecture.

She added that in the prevailing security challenges, all hands must be on deck to smoke out sinister elements of mass displacement in whatever form they manifest in our society.

The SOP is in tandem with the tenets of the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 protocol and the regional 1969 OAU Convention which are domesticated into the NCFR, etc Act, CAP 21, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

The SOPs provides 4 steps procedure for the processing of applicants for asylum who are suspected of having played an active part in the hostilities in an armed conflict namely: Identification and initial determination of combatant status, Separation and internment, Determination of genuine and permanent renunciation of military activities and Refugee Status Determination (RSD).

The minister said: “In 2017, the international community and Nigeria in particular, witnessed the outflow of Cameroonian refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in a mixed migration situation as a result of the simmered separatist struggle by the Anglophone North-west and South-west Regions of the Cameroon Republic.

“Nigeria now hosts over 75, 000 Cameroonian refugees and asylum seekers, majority of who are located at the four border States of Taraba, Benue, Cross River and Akwa Ibom.

“The escalation of the armed conflict in Cameroon and the consequent influx of the mixed population into Nigeria have raised concern about the possible presence of combatants/fighters among the Cameroonian asylum seekers.

“Hence, the initiative by the NCFRMI and UNHCR to develop an SOP for maintaining the civilian and humanitarian character of asylum in the Cameroonian refugee asylum operation in the country”.

On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr Lai Mohammed, added that due to the insurgency in Cameroon, Nigeria has witnessed an influx of Cameroonian asylum seekers and there are basic standard procedures for anyone to be granted status as an asylum seeker.

“This is what the council considered and approved today. And basically is that anybody from Cameroon who is seeking asylum in Nigeria must first convinced the authorities that he or she has actually renounced armed struggle, before you can even be considered as an asylum seeker.

“Also they are cases of some of them who have come even when they claim to have surrendered their arms, go back at times, to join the separatist movement in Cameroon. So, the procedure was explained and approved today that will evaluate the basic criteria to grant asylum,” he said.

He said with the security challenges in some parts of the country; government was taking the necessary steps to ensure that insurgents or terrorists do not take advantage of asylum to infiltrate Nigeria.

“So, all we have done today is to establish the standard procedure to ensure that those who claim to be asylum seekers are actually not insurgents themselves that have come to destabilize Nigeria or people who will come and be launching attacks against their own country from the comfort of Nigeria,” he said.