The federal government on Tuesday said it would repatriate no fewer than 6000 Nigerian refugees from Chad and Cameroon.
The Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugee, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Tijani Ahmed, disclosed this in Abuja at the end of a Technical Working Group (TWG) meeting on the voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees.
He said about 21,000 Nigerian refugees were in Chad while Cameroon has 14,000 others.
Ahmed added that 6,000 people would be returned from Chad while the number to be repatriated from Cameroon would be determined before the start of the exercise which is expected to be concluded in the next two months.
“We are arranging to bring back those who are interested in returning because repatriation is voluntary and an agreement has been signed between UNHCR, the government of Cameroon and the federal government of Nigeria in the area of repatriation of our people from Cameroon.
“We are going to work towards the repatriation of 6,000 Nigerians out of about 21,000 of them in Chad.
“We are looking at returning 3000 households from Chad, which is about 6,000 people from Chad to Nigeria.
“For Cameroon, we have about 14,000 people but we will profile them because we don’t have to force anybody to return. Arrangements are underway to get them back. Within the next two months, we should have concluded the arrangement on repatriation.”
He said discussions were being held with the government of Borno State over where to keep the repatriated Nigerians, adding that houses were currently being constructed in Banki and Baga to accommodate the returnees.
“We are arranging with the Borno state government to ensure that they are taken to skill acquisition centres. They will be trained and given start-up packs because the government cannot continue to fend for them for life and that is why we are giving them a durable solution which includes shelter and start-up packs,” the NCFRMI federal commissioner said.
According to him, most of the refugees were displaced by the 2022 flood, the Boko Haram crisis, the farmer-herders clashes and the climate change challenge in the Northeast.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Deputy Representative (Protection), Bernadette Muteshi, commended the federal government for taking the lead in the repatriation exercise.
She said: “We will try to ensure that this process happens as soon as practically feasible by putting all elements together and we hope to support a credible process.
“We want to ensure that the basic human rights of these people are observed and upheld and we hope that all arrangements can be in place to meet the aspirations of people that we care for”.
