NIS tasks officers on expected Cameroon refugee crisis

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has urged its officers and men to brace up for expected migration challenges from the crisis in Southern Cameroon.

NIS Comptroller General, Mr Muhammad Babandede, gave the advice during a two-day working visit to Cross River, the agency said in a statement by its spokesman Sunday James on Thursday.

James said the NIS boss spoke at a meeting with the Comptrollers of Cross River, Benue, Akwa Ibom and Taraba States, which border Cameroon from the south.

The United Nations Refugees Agency (UNRA) has projected that 40,000 displaced persons would migrate to Nigeria from Cameroon due to the recent crisis.

The NIS helmsman said that Cross River was expected to play host to 30,000 of the migrants and that 300 had already been registered.

James said: “The comptroller general urged the officers and men to keep observing human rights and best practices for engaging the refugees and Nigerian returnees at the ports of entry.

“He also advised them to keep vigil and be sensitive to information, escalations and eventualities that may result from the ongoing situation in the Cameroon.”

The NIS spokesman said some Nigerian returnees from Cameroon met the CGI at the Mfum border post to relate their experiences.

According to him, they also request to be allowed to return with their trucks parked on the Cameroon side due to the temporary closure of the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

The crisis arose from a secession bid by English-speaking regions of Cameroon, including the South, resulting in protests, deaths, injuries and mass arrests of protesters.

Cross River shares boundary at different points with southern Cameroon.

The Mfum border post in Etung Local Government Area of the state was shut recently by the Cameroonian authorities as a result of the escalating crisis.