QUE: To what effect has the agreement between NIDCOM and the Lebanon Embassy yielded positive results concerning irregular migration?
ANS: At least we haven’t heard of any more Nigerian going to Lebanon and being stranded and we are hoping it has nothing to do with the travel restrictions. It is important that Lebanon has now stopped work visas. So if you apply now you cannot get the visa anymore. What we need to do in Nigeria, is to focus on how to make this migration legal the way it is done in the Philippines. You want to migrate, you can go freely legally. Although the case of Lebanon is not irregular migration but the `kafala’ system turns you virtually to a slave. You become the slave of your master and that is what we need to change. I hope as we move on these are things we will collaborate on with the Ministry of Labour, Nigerian Immigration Service, the House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora, Senate Committee on Diaspora and NAPTIP. We all need to work on it.