Report of the Migrant and Us Protection (MUP)
The main importance of an effective migration management is that migrants are protected and migrants travel safely and orderly. Civil Society Network on Migration and Development (CSOnetMADE) has been carrying out project activities to ensure an effective migration management.
Generally, the advent of Covid-19 pandemic and its lockdown precautionary measure exacerbated the vulnerabilities of people, including migrants especially those working under inhumane condition. The safety and wellbeing of everyone including migrants are exclusively important in achieving a peaceful coexistent and developed society.
CSOnetMADE in response to the vulnerability caused by the pandemic organized webinars to map out mechanism to reduce migrant’s susceptibility during and post Covid-19. These webinars had in attendance participants spread across the globe and in the various geopolitical zones of Nigeria, the Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Nigeria (MDAs), Pan African Network in Defense of Migrants’ Rights (PANiDMR), Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and Academia. These webinars initiated the activity Migrants and Us under the CSOnetMADE-SDC project “Strengthening Civil Society Participation in National Migration Governance” which was sponsored by Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).
It was at these meetings that the resolution was made for the establishment of migrants’ protection activity, “Migrant and Us” for the protection of migrant’s rights during and post emergency. The objective of Migration and Us protection activity was to create a platform for the protection of migrants rights which will monitor violation of migrants’ rights, enlighten the public on protection of migrants’ rights and establish a complaint desk for migrants’ protection
Implementation of the Activity- “Migrants and US” on the Protection of Migrants
The itinerary scheduled to ensure maximum impact of Migrants and Us Protection Activity include-
Establishment of a helpdesk: CSOnetMADE established a helpdesk in its office to facilitate the implementation of the MUP. A phone line was opened and a desk officer was engaged for collating, reporting, populating the database of reports, and follow up of migrants’ rights violation, as observed by the public or experienced by migrants, to ensure distressed migrants are responded to and protected.
Development of IEC Material: in a bid to implement this, CSOnetMADE engaged migration and communication experts including media practitioners, actors in migration management drawn from staff and membership of CSOnetMADE to draft and design a drafts and samples of the various materials and instruments to be used for awareness creation with regard to the MUP. These IEC include flier and jingles. The drafted IEC materials were reviewed at the various stakeholders’ engagement meetings.
Review and Validation The stakeholders were engaged in a thorough review of the materials in order to ensure it meets the requirements and achieve the outcome of the migrants’ protection activity. At the end of the review session, the awareness materials were validated as amended for onward production and dissemination to the public.
Media Engagement: Also media agencies were mapped bearing in mind their competence, patronage and coverage. The media for dissemination were selected in a sending and receiving strategy that is the origin and destination locations of the target group (migrants’ workers). Several radio stations were engaged in the selected states in all the geopolitical zones in Nigeria for the airing of the jingle.
Stakeholders’ Engagement:
The engagements were held successively on the 7th of September, 2020, 20th of January 2021, 12th March 2021 and 24th of March 2021.
It had in attendance representatives of various relevant ministries- related government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies, security and human rights agencies and representatives of the press.
The first engagement aimed at creating a platform for the protection of migrants’ rights, strengthening the nexus between security/human rights agencies and CSOnetMADE, and establishing a platform for appropriate reporting and follow-up of migrants’ rights violation. At the engagement, the methodology of implementing the project was introduced to the participants; the participants gave their recommendations and agencies present made commitments to ensure the project achieves its aim of protecting migrants, as it is a step in the right direction in curbing the incessant abuse of migrant’s rights.
The second engagement updated stakeholders on the progress of the activities so far, which include, introduction of the desk officer who is to man the migrants’ protection helpdesk to take in calls and forward complains to the necessary duty bearer; the hotline, email address and social media handles to be disseminated to the public and the reporting strategy.
The third engagement updated stakeholders on the modified IEC materials (jingle and flyers) and the dissemination strategy through different media which include-
Social media– Facebook update and advertisements, Instagram updates and advertisements. Radio
Jingle– the jingle aired in all selected radio stations across the country; it was aired in three languages (English, Hausa and Pidgin English). The airing was in a migration receiving and sending location strategy.
The flyers were widely distributed in all regions across the country (Nigeria) in 22 states down to the grassroots.
The fourth engagement which was proposed to be the final meeting was set up with the aim of giving a feedback and all progress report to migrants’ protection stakeholders and to recommend ways to ensure the sustainability of the project.
As at the time of this engagement all its implementing requisite have been carried out which include distribution of flyers, which were distributed in all location down to its grassroots including motor parks, markets, schools, roadside, farms, IDP’s camps, rallies, offices etc.
The radio jingles was aired in three different languages in all enlisted radio at their different designated time of airing. The social media (facebook and Instagram) advertisements and updates were all implemented with effective results.
Since the commencement of circulation of the IEC materials frequent calls came in from the general public, both from distress migrants, migrants and non-migrants, the relevant calls have been documented, linked with the appropriate security agency for resolution and effectively followed up.
Beneficiaries of the project
The beneficiaries of the project include but not limited to Irregular migrants, Unaccompanied migrant children, Trafficked persons, Internally Displaced Persons in distress, Returnees, Stranded migrants caught in crisis, Domestic workers.
Conclusion
The migration and us protection activity which is aimed at creating a platform for the protection of migrants rights, strengthening the nexus between security/human rights agencies and CSOnetMADE by establishing a platform for appropriate reporting and follow-up of migrants rights violation thus integrating the affairs of migrants into the various activities of CSOs and government in relation to mitigating the impact of covid-19 and increase the publicity on the need to protect migrants via the media across the country achieved the enlisted aim.
Evidence are the distressed migrants who called in from all part of the country with their complaints filed, reported and followed up strictly to ensure migrants rights are been protected. The regular stakeholders’ engagement created avenue for security/human right agencies to build relationship with themselves and with the network and the wide outreach of the ICE material which serve also as a means of educating migrants on their rights and protection services when needed.