Standup9ja - Nigeria To Issue UN Passport To Persons At Risk Of Being
‘Stateless’
Sani Zorro, Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), says the Nigerian government plans to
issue United Nations passport to people at risk of being stateless.
Mr. Zorro made this known during an interview with the News
Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Saturday, in Abuja, marking the second anniversary
of Nigeria ratifying the Abidjan Declaration to end statelessness.
He said that the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants
and IDPs 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.
Mr. 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 was a looming stateless situation
in Nigeria which could arise from the high level of displacement in the
North-east.
“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 said.
NAN reports that on February 25, 2014, the UN High
Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) organised a Regional Ministerial Conference on ending statelessness.
At the end of the conference which held in Abidjan, Ivory
Coast, participants who represented 15 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 Nov.
4, 2014, to eradicating statelessness by 2024.
(NAN)
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