By Tayo Elegbede, Lagos
Media practitioners have been urged to report migration developments from a humanitarian angle to improve public understanding of migration realities.
The call was made by the Coordinator of The Migrant Project Nigeria, Clare Henshaw, on Monday while receiving members of the Journalists International Forum for Migration (JIFORM) in Lagos.
The Migrant Project is one of the global humanitarian interventions of SEEFAR, a social enterprise with the mission to work with vulnerable people to build a better future.
“We believe that the media plays a pivotal role in shaping beliefs and influencing decisions; hence, we seek avenues to collaborate and empower media practitioners through training and resources to help them produce more human-angle stories on migration which more people can relate with,” said Henshaw.
Speaking about JIFORM’s visit, President Ajibola Abayomi said the courtesy call was to solicit support for its International Migration Conference billed to hold on 25 – 29 November 2019 in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said the conference would bring together thought leaders, policymakers, government agencies, local and international non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders to forge a common front towards resolving irregular migration and human trafficking challenges in Nigeria.
“We invite you once again call on SEEFAR to join this all-important conference and help sustain in Nigeria and beyond advocacy against human trafficking. It is also about making government wake up to its responsibilities by creating more opportunities for the citizens,” Abayomi said.
In her response to the forum’s request for conference support, Clare appreciated the forum for taking the initiative on the conference and also inviting SEEFAR to be a part of the event.
She noted that the enterprise was reviewing the request for support and will communicate its position to the group in due time.
Earlier, Clare explained to the visiting journalists that the Migrant Project uses an integrated communications approach to provide information on the realities, risks and alternatives to irregular migration whilst debunking myths around undocumented migration.
According to her, the campaign has in the last one year counselled thousands of potential migrants and returnees of which 2,000 of them have been successfully connected to various skill empowerment programmes or employment both in Lagos and Edo states.
JIFORM, an international platform with over 140 migration-oriented journalists was represented by its President, Ajibola Abayomi; Sunday Aikulola, The Guardian Newspaper; Innocent Duru, The Nation Newspapers; Bukola Adetiloye, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN); Yemi Izuora, Oriental News Nigeria; Precious Eze, Blogger and Austin Nwadinamou, Publisher of the Primetimes Reporter.
