Federal Govt, Stakeholders Review Procedure For Stateless Persons’ Status

National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCRFMI) and other stakeholders have commenced the review of the draft Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Statelessness Status Determination (SSD).

The federal commissioner of NCFRMI, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, who disclosed this at the event to review the SOP yesterday in Abuja, said there was a need to strengthen the instrument for statelessness determination.

The event was organised by the NCFRMI and supported by UNHCR.

“The National Action Plan and Review of the SOP will help us in addressing those issues of people at risk of becoming stateless. Usually, these rights are for refugees and people that are displaced.

“So, we would like to consider their priority. It is very important we note that when displacement happens, within the camps and resettlement, children are being born,” she said.

Meanwhile, the federal commissioner said the federal government was strengthening the internal framework of the Refugee Commission, particularly in areas concerning migration, refugee management, and displacement management.

Giving the charge during a separate briefing, yesterday in Abuja, she said strengthening the instruments of the commission would give a boost to its programmes and interventions.

According to her, “What basically it entails is that the Federal Republic of Nigeria has done so well with establishing structures but we must continue to strengthen them so that they can rise to their emerging challenges.

“As you know, the areas of our mandate are areas of migration, refugee management, and displacement management.

“The provision of durable solutions on sustainable solutions for all persons of concerns is an evolving area, you know, with different dimensions of challenges. So, we must continue to strengthen our instruments so that we can be able to do more.”

Speaking on the commission’s interventions in Internally Displaced Person camps, she revealed: “We don’t manage camps, what we do is the provision of durable solutions and sustainable solutions for IDPs. We try to support, but we have a secondary role not a primary role in the areas of people living in the camps.

On his part, the national leader, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Integrity Movement (ANIM) for Asiwaju/Shettima 2023, Abubakar Sa’adu Fakai, said the commission had done well under the Buhari-led administration, adding that the commission’s achievement would form strong points for the APC 2023 campaign.

“We are in the National Refugee Commission because it is one of the few commissions that has done very well in terms of taking care of displaced people. So, we are here to find out what they have done, how they have done it, maybe a few challenges so that we can use it when we are campaigning to tell Nigerians what we have done,” he said.