Comptroller-general of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Isah Idris Jere yesterday, blamed the impact of strict visa regime on increase in irregular migration.
The Immigration CG called for an outright review of the United Kingdom’s strict visa regime. He also lamented that the ugly development has further paved the way for and has drastically boosted irregular migration.
Mr Jere expressed Nigeria’s gratitude to the UK for their magnanimity in the provision of various classes of Visas through which Nigerians can travel to the United Kingdom.
He stated this in Abuja at the opening session of the 2023 Nigeria-United Kingdom Migration, Justice and Home Affairs Bilateral Talks held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Nigeria and the United Kingdom had in February 2022 signed a Memorandum of Understand MoU on Migration Partnership, the NIS boss said both countries had, since 2005, signed an agreement on immigration returns.
He called on participants at the meeting to discuss issues like the costs of visa fees and the high rate of visa application rejections.
Idris Jere announced that the revised Nigeria Visa Policy (NVP 2020) is robust enough to make Nigeria an attractive investment destination for British citizens and all other Nationals.
He said, “One of the high points of the new visa policy is the introduction of the Visa on Arrival regime, which is a business visa issued to high net-worth investors upon their arrival in Nigeria.
While calling on participants at the event to deliberate upon facilitation of official travels for government functionaries, he explained that in his view, such an issue can be easily tackled with the introduction of Visa waiver for holders of Diplomatic and Official passports who are on official assignment.
He said, “Let me seize this opportunity to applaud the United Kingdom for the successes recorded by the project, ‘Collaborating Against Trafficking and Smuggling CATS’ executed by IOM and sponsored by the United Kingdom.”
The programme has assisted Nigeria in collaborating more effectively with the Republic of Niger to jointly tackle issues of Migrants Smuggling and Trafficking in Persons.
“The project has provided us with a glossary of terminology which is assisting Border Officials in the Nigeria/ Republic of Niger Borderlines to effectively communicate with Migrants. In addition, the CATS project has also facilitated the drafting of an MoU on data sharing between Nigeria and Niger.
“ATS is a laudable project and I request that you extend it to the Nigeria/Benin and Nigeria/Cameroon Borders as reports have revealed that facilitators of Irregular Migration are switching to the Nigeria-Benin-Niger and Nigeria-Cameroon -Gabon routes to perpetrate their crimes,” he concluded.
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