NIS tightens noose on migrant smugglers across borders
The Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) has warned against illegal migration, human trafficking, and migrants smuggling across borders, saying illegal migration attracted ten years imprisonment or a fine of not less than one million naira or both and liability to refund to the migrant all monies obtained from him in the course of Committing the offence.
The NIS Cross River State Command made this known after the nationwide sensitisation on the smuggling of migrants (SOM) in the state.
Comptroller Prisca Ogbodo, the Rivers NIS boss, at the grand finale ceremony, noted that the State Command commemorated the Service’s nationwide campaign against migrant smuggling with nine other borders across the country.
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The State Command took the campaign to communities, traditional rulers, tertiary institutions, religious congregations, and the Calabar public, educating them on the perils of irregular migration and particularly the smuggling of migrants.
At the flag-off of the campaign in Cross River State, Comptroller Ogbodo charged personnel to be ambassadors against smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.
She noted: “The geographic situation of Cross River as a border state implies consequentially that the state would be a source, transit and destination location for irregular migration including smuggling of migrants and trafficking in persons.”
According to the NIS Cross River command, the campaign ran on the powers of PART X to XVII of the Immigration Act 2015, which prohibits the smuggling of migrants, prescribes restitution for victims and imposes a penalty for the offence.
The goal of the sensitisation was the prevention of crime through public awareness and the protection of the rights of Migrants in line with national and international guidelines, the service said.
