By Joseph Kingston, Calabar
The government of Cross River state has said that, within the last four years, the state had been burdened by not fewer than 200,000 refugees and migrants.
The director general of the of the State Migration and Control Agency, Prince Mike Abuo, raised the alarm in Calabar, Tuesday, shortly after a paper presentation in a workshop organised by Children of Rural Africa- Nigeria (COR Africa).
He said the figure was made up of Cameroonian refugees, and internally displaced persons from Bakassi and places torn apart by communal conflicts.
The DG lamented the effect of such number of people on the state and charged the federal government and the International Commission for Migrants, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons to conduct a comprehensive survey of refugees and IDPs in the state.
Abuo argued that the survey would made it easy for a database to be built to enable the government have a full grasp of actual figure of migrants and refugees in Cross River.
Decrying the ceding of Bakassi, the DG said the influx of displaced persons from the ceded peninsular as well as refugees from Cameroon who are still currently being held up in bad condition in Obanlikwu local government of the state demand more attention from the international communities.
“We have influx of thousands of refugees because of the civil war in the Cameroon. It’s overwhelming. This is not something that the state government alone can handle.
“We also call on the UNHCR to stand by us by improving upon the good works that they have been doing, and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and other international organisations to provide some funding and intervention.”We call for increase in terms of international funding to provide succour for these persons. The facilities that are available are not enough to cater for the number of refugees that are in the state,” the DG stated.
