UK, Nigeria partner to tackle illegal migration, human trafficking

Nigeria and the United Kingdom have proposed measures to effectively tackle migration, promote justice, and counter all forms of transnational organised crimes.

The meeting was led by officials from Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs and the UK’s Home Office in Abuja on Wednesday.

According to a Home Office statement on Thursday, agreements were reached on nine pillars of key priority issues.

They included returning individuals who have no lawful reason to remain in each other’s territories; promoting visa programmes that support UK-Nigeria trade and investment in line with existing opportunities; tackling visa abuse; and combatting serious organised crime (SOC).

Both parties also explored a UK-initiated PREVENT programme aimed at diverting young people from joining organised crime group, extradition of persons of interest, prisoner transfer agreements, commodities and human trafficking, and illicit financing.

On tackling SOCs, Nigeria proposed local threat analysis reports as a strategy.

Both countries agreed to test the mechanism.

“This historic agreement would be the first of its kind in West Africa and demonstrates the solid commitment between the two countries on combating serious organised crime,” the Home Office said.

The UK also pledged to collaborate with Nigeria on sharing information about prison and detention conditions to keep UK courts informed and to ensure credible assurances on the treatment of extradited persons.

Nigeria and the UK agreed to develop measures to tackle human trafficking, strengthen inter-agency cooperation on commodities trafficking, particularly in the maritime domain, and counter terrorism financing.