Sani Zorro, the chairman, House
of Representatives committee on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has
disclosed Nigerian government's plan to issue United Nations passport to
people at risk of being stateless.
Zorro
made this known during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN), on Saturday, in Abuja, as Nigeria marks the second anniversary of
ratifying the Abidjan Declaration to end statelessness.
He
said that the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs
(NCFRMI) and the National Immigration Department are engaged in a
process called refugee status determination.
He
explained that this process would help to ascertain stateless persons
that are eligible for the UN passport, a document they can hold on to
before their respective cases are resolved.
Zorro
noted that it is important for Nigeria to speedily domesticate and
implement the Abidjan Declaration on statelessness as it contains the
strategies and recommendations of dealing with statelessness.
He pointed out that there is a
looming stateless situation in Nigeria which could arise from the high
level of displacement in the North-east, those who fled to Nigeria
during crises, among others.
“As a
result of the North East Crises, quite a number of refugees who find
themselves in neighbouring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon may not
be able to return to Nigeria again.
“The
longer they live and reproduce in those countries, they would face the
risk of statelessness because in future when the host countries ask of
their nationality, they would not be able to show evidence.
“The other situation could be
as a result of the over 800 Turkish nationals living and running
different businesses in Nigeria whose nationalities were recently
nullified by their country’s President.
“Another
situation is of some Nigerians who fled from the Central Africa
Republic (CAR) to Nigeria three years ago during the political crises
and settled in Kano, Jigawa and other North-western states.
“These
groups of persons are currently stateless because as a result of loss
of documents. The younger ones who were born in CAR do not have any
papers to prove themselves as Nigerians," he explained.
NAN
recalls that the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had on February 25,
2014, organised a Regional Ministerial Conference on ending
statelessness.
At the end of the
conference which held in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, participants who
represented fifteen countries in the sub region ratified the document
also known as the “Abidjan Declaration’’.
The declaration contains steps and recommendations to be adopted by member countries to ending statelessness in West Africa.
The
conference was organised to show West Africa’s commitment to the
UNHCR’s ten-year global campaign which was launched on November 4, 2014,
to eradicating statelessness by 2024. NAN
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