Switzerland has reiterated its commitment to strengthen its collaboration with Nigeria on migration data management services.
Ms Jolanda Herren, the Migration Officer, Embassy of Switzerland in Nigeria reiterated this when she led a four-man delegation to the Swiss government-funded Nigeria Immigration Service Personnel Training Resource Centre.
Project Review
Herren explained that the team, which also inspected the NIS E-registration centre for migrants, was in Calabar to appraise it’s the functionality of its projects with a view to strengthening its partnership with Nigeria.
She said: “We are here with delegates from the immigration service of Switzerland and we are here to review one of the projects we financed with NIS (Nigeria Immigration Service).”
“We, Switzerland, have a migration partnership with Nigeria since 2011 and we have implemented a lot of projects together with the Swiss government actors and one of our partners is NIS,” stated Herren.
According to her, the findings and discussions would serve as a basis for further partnerships, noting “so, now we will discuss, see the results and see how we will improve for future collaboration.”
Effective Training
Receiving the Swiss delegation, the Comptroller Immigration, Calabar command, Mr. Oke Ezugwu commended the Swiss government and the implementing partner, the International Organization for Migration, IOM, for establishing a state-of-the-arts resource centre.
Ezugwu disclosed that since the launch of the E-registration exercise, which required the attention and dedication of immigration officers, more than four hundred personnel have been trained at the centre.
He stated, “At the centre, the training offered is in line with international best practices. We follow the guidelines and the beneficiaries, 444 of them so far trained, can testify to the quality of services at the centre.
“They are trained on how to interact with migrants so as not to infringe on their fundamental rights and in all that we do, we ensure diligence so that we do not admit persons with questionable character into our country,” said Ezugwu.
Mykebenz Ishola, the resource centre coordinator further gave a breakdown of the various training modules for the different cadre of officers, who come for training.
Source: VON
