…renews commitment to ending illegal migration
By Henry Oqua
The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, has renewed his administration’s pledge to end irregular migration in the State, promising that returnees will get more support from the government to stabilise them and assist them to contribute to the development of the State.
He made the pledge on Tuesday, December 6, 2022, during the MEGA Summit 2022 organised for returnees by the Go-Getters Edo State, in collaboration with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in Benin City.
A visibly excited Obaseki recalled the despondent look on the faces of the returnees when he last met with them.
“It’s just like yesterday, next door at the Hotel Benin Plaza, when the first set of returnees came. I remember very vividly that night, the looks on the faces of many of the returnees. For them, it was as if life had almost come to an end. They looked hopeless. Many were ashamed, and confused; but we thank God that all of you had your lives back, because, from some of your testimonies, we don’t even know how many we’ve lost” Obaseki said.
He also hailed the special determination and attitude displayed by the returnees since they arrived home, and celebrated their contributions to their communities where they are now working to help young people from falling victim to human trafficking.
He said: “For me, you Go-Getters are very special people. I mean it in every sense of the word. Listening to your testimonies, clearly, you are very aspirational people; to have even made that decision you made; to have gone through the tough time you went through, and survived it, just shows that you are special people”.
Empathising with the grueling hardship irregular migrants face in their search for better opportunities, Governor Obaseki said his confidence in the returnees was borne out of the manner in which they responded since their return, to get their lives back on track. He then went on to promise more support for them in the last two years of his tenure.
“The reason why I’m confident in you is that I don’t have to tell you how tough and difficult life can be. You already know. So, I’m not surprised that so many of you have been able to pick up your lives, and you are doing well. How I wish we have been able to support you a lot more. But I have two years, and I promise I will do more.
“I’m so glad that many of you are going around your communities to prevent and help people and stop people from going through the kind of experience that you went through. it just shows how great you are” he added.
The Chairperson of the Edo State Task Force Against Human Trafficking (ETAHT) Professor Yinka Omorogbe, thanked the Governor for his support for the returnees.
She noted that Government’s support led to the inflow of technical and financial support from international sponsors and Non Governmental Organisations like the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
She noted that with the support, many returnees have been stabilised and are positively impacting their communities.
Obaseki used the opportunity to tell the returnees his administration’s interventions in education, entrepreneurship and infrastructural development aimed at providing young people across the state with improved opportunities.
He explained that the program to end irregular migration is progressing to the next phase with the Managing Migration through Development Project (MMDP) 2.0.
“As a government, we want to continue to work and reduce the incidence of irregular migration and human trafficking. We will step up our activities as a government in this next phase which we call the MMDP 2.0”, he said.
