DENMARK, NIGERIA TO TACKLE IRREGULAR MIGRATION

Danish Development Cooperation Minister Ulla Tornæs, on Wednesday, expressed her country’s determination to assist Nigeria tackle irregular migration from the country to Denmark and Europe.

Tornaes stated this while addressing journalists at the end of a close-door meeting between a delegation from Denmark and Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama in Abuja.

Tornaes was accompanied by that country’s Minister for Immigration and Integration, Inger Stojberg, and the Ambassador of Denmark to Nigeria, Torbben Getterman, among others.

Tornaes, who said that the delegation was also in Nigeria to strengthen the trade relations between the two countries, assured that more Danish investors would come to invest in Nigeria.

Tornae said: “We are here in Nigeria to strengthen the trade relations between Nigeria and Denmark and it is also to address challenges of irregular migration to Europe.

“We have very good discussion on how we can cooperate more and what we can do to address the irregular migration to Europe and how to assist Nigeria on returnees’ integration.

“We are trying to address the root causes of the migration and the core of it is what we can do to assist Nigeria and other African countries to stem the tide”.

She said some of the plans were to assist through investment in key sectors such as agriculture, education, job creation and empowerment.

“We believe that the reason why young people go to Europe is because of the lack of the hope for the future.

“We would very much like to help address the issue on education, health and all kinds of other development areas.”

She said that Denmark had also assisted Nigeria in addressing the humanitarian crisis in the North-East.

In her remark, Stojberg said the two countries had agreed to have a delegation from Nigeria to Denmark.

Stojberg said that this was to give way for some negotiations that would help address the challenges Denmark was facing on the migration.

Receiving the delegation, Onyeama said there were numbers of Nigerian irregular migrants in Denmark, adding that the two countries needed to take holistic approach to the issue.

He said that the meeting, in addition to addressing the irregular migration question, also looked at the skills development and empowerment of the migrants.

The minister said that the two countries also discussed on what programmes to put together to ensure meaningful approach to addressing the migration issue.

He commended Denmark for the supports given to Nigeria, especially in the humanitarian crisis in the North-East.

Onyeama said that Denmark supported Nigeria with $5 million dollars to assist the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.