Help! I am in a state of a migrant limbo.

As a Nigerian who is an International student in the United Kingdom, I was compelled to migrate with my family as a result of the prevailing socio-politico cum economic vices in my home country which include corruption, human rights abuse, poor social infrastructure, high unemployment rate and most importantly the dysfunctional education sector.

The unemployment rate in Nigeria is projected by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group – NESG to hit 37% in 2023.

Other predominant reasons include – kidnappings; terrorist attacks; religious and ethnic conflicts; police brutality and extra judicial killings also glaring positions at the top rung of the persistent threats to life in Nigeria.

 

The above scenario when juxtaposed side by side with the causation factors and definition of forced migration by the Migration and Home Affairs department of the European Commission, connotes that I shared the same features of a forced migrant with a refugee and an asylum seeker who are identified and protected by international law. However, the process of migrating to the UK as an International student and my legal status as a Tier 4 Visa holder in the UK says otherwise and therefore inadvertently codifying me and many others who were forced to migrate either through the study or skilled worker routes as forced migrants in limbo.

To fully appreciate the thrust of this article, let us explore the provisions of international statutes on forced migration from the Known to the Known.

What is Forced Migration?

According to the European Commission’s Migration and Home Affairs department, forced migration is identified as a migratory movement involving the element of coercion, including threats to life and livelihood, emanating from either as a result of natural or man-made causes. Technically, any individual who is compelled to leave his/her place of habitual residence to seek respite internally, or travelled to a foreign country in search of protection and better living conditions against any of the above listed prevailing circumstances in their home country is regarded as a forced migrant.

In respect of this definition above, my reality and that of many other International students and skilled workers who were compelled to leave as a result of near death experiences with particular reference to the prevalence of insecurity and wanton disregard to the substance of life, which most Nigerians who live in the country are grappling with should not be dismissed in any discussion relating to forced migration.

However, forced migration is more often than not associated with the movements of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are compelled to flee or leave their homes in order to avoid the effects of armed conflicts, human rights violations, natural disasters or man-made catastrophes.

According to UNHCR, about 89.3 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. The data provided by UNHCR is silent on the position of this article and does not cover the group which this piece has identified as forced migrants in limbo.

While refugees can be classified as forced migrants abroad, internally displaced persons are forced migrants within their country’s borders.

On the flip side, forced migration is never associated with that Skilled worker or the International student who as a result of the above identified vices as par the Nigerian case was forced to leave their home country in search of protection abroad, and a better living condition in general; which was made possible by having a functional system/institutions in place.

These group of people albeit are affected by similar or related factors as refugees, they are not identified as forced migrants. This gap in the international recognition of forced migration and the global humanitarian regime is what this piece seeks to highlight.

Refugees as Forced Migrants:

The 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees established that, the status of refugee must be accorded to any individual who meets the conditions identified as events culminating to an individual to be proclaimed as a refugee. The Convention espouses these events to include – fear of persecution on the grounds of racial, religious, national, as well as socio-political leaning as prevailing circumstances for granting refugees rights.

Similarly, the 1969 OAU Convention acknowledges that any event disturbing public order within a country which has warranted an individual or group of persons to move from their habitual place of residence to seek protection in another place outside the country of origin qualifies as a forced migration.

Despite its lack of acknowledgement of other groups who as a result of events at home qualified them as forced migrants, that is the forced migrants in limbo, these additional indices provided by the African Union shows a significant addition to the gap in knowledge in terms of the correlation between forced migration and the UNHCR’s definition of the term refugee.

I am not a Voluntary Migrant: the Nigerian Case

‘Living in Nigeria should be added as one of the 1000 ways to die’.

The above statement is often the word on the streets of popular Nigerian cities and an affirmation of the well-founded fear many Nigerians living in Nigeria are dealing with.

As a Nigerian, when you are from my clime and you made it to the Western world, it is assumed that you have broken free from the shackles of poverty, low life expectancy, and all sorts of dehumanizing conditions one can think of.

Your social or economic status quo prior to leaving the shores of Nigeria to any part of the western hemisphere does not really matter. In particular, migrating to countries such as USA, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and most parts of western Europe is celebrated as a lifetime accomplishment irrespective of how well off you were before leaving and certainly no one cares to know about your challenges as a migrant living abroad.

As long as you are no longer facing the imminent dangers of being kidnapped and other similar experience, you are well off and living out the dreams of many.

These social, political and economic push factors contributing to forced migration are the reality on ground in Nigeria and the predominant causes of the new wave of mass emigration to foreign countries as at the time of writing this article. There is even a national colloquial to it and this is known as Japa! Japa is an indigenous Yoruba word which connotes to run away, flee or escape.

According to a report by one of Nigeria’s leading media Premium Times, the Japa conundrum has elicited many public debates, since its recent emergence under the present Nigerian government led by Muhammadu Buhari. Particularly, relevant Nigerian authorities including the Nigerian Immigration Service revealed that there has been an upsurge in the production of passports, up to 80% increase representing about 1.9 million in number of passports produced in 2022, the highest in the past seven years.

The Presidency, through its ministries – Labour, Interior and Information had at some point decried the high rate of emigration of Nigerian workforce to foreign countries and its implication on the Nigerian economy, with the education and health sectors being the hardest hit. The Guardian Life, a renowned lifestyle magazine reported that the number of Nigerian students in UK universities recorded 69% rise from previous academic session.

Significantly, the impact of this forced migration abroad on the health sector has presented a patient-to-doctor ratio in Nigeria at 3,500 to 1, against the recommended 600 to 1 by WHO. These and many yet to be seen explosive impact of forced migration and the pattern it presents through Japa, creates a potential volatile position of brain drain and refugee expulsion to both the Nigerian state and the international community respectively.

Thus, this article is throwing up the following questions to the appropriate United Nation Agencies – United Nations High Commissioner for refugees (UNHCR), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other relevant international humanitarian agencies:

Are there sufficient grounds and relevant causes as presented in this article to consider the argument for forced migrants in limbo as a group while categorising victims of forced migration just as Refugees?

If yes, what reasonable steps must be taken to improve their status in the receiving countries with regards to creating an international instrument like that of ‘international refugee protection’ which covers refugees and asylum seekers?

If not, why?