The Chairman, Editorial Board of Penpushing Media, Mrs Funke Fadugba has called on Government to scrutinize policies on factors affecting child migrants, and also urged journalists to determine whether budget are contributed towards the livelihood of child migrants in the country.
Fadugba made the call while delivering a lecture on the topic,’ “Journalists as Child Protection Actors: The Case of Migrants Children”, as part of commemoration of the International Migrants Day, held at the weekend in Abeokuta.
The two time Chairperson of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council, emphasized that government must invest in protection of migrant children.
“There are some children from good homes but are not good children, which is due to factors they are engaged with probably, bad groups, secret cults and others”, adding that journalists need engaged with them to determine what is happening to these children and also help to bridge the gap between these children and their homes.
The Veteran Journalist also advocated for cooperation between migrant agencies and media houses, for the purpose of dissemination of information about migrant children.
The Country Head, Terres Des Hommes (TDH) Nigeria, Mrs Olapeju Osoba, while speaking on protection of child migrants, stated that the agency is giving more protection to children who are trafficked and not ones who came on their own, because vulnerable children are mostly on their own.
Osoba, while giving reasons for children movement, said, “children move because of good opportunities, be it education, for better life, for adventures, when their environment is abusing, when they are trafficked (even though they are not forced but because of trafficking)”
The Terres Des Hommes (TDH) boss , further added that, some children face vulnerability because of the situation they face or they are in, while urging all institutions to come together to help the children migrant, and lamented the contribution of every Nigerians towards problem of migrants children.
“For instance, if a migrant child is about to be trained for tailoring and the tutor said it’s ₦20,000 to train her, and you said you can only afford ₦5,000 but now refused the child, the trainer has contributed to the problem of migrant children. So therefore every child has rights and their rights should be protected” she added.
The Country Head pointed out that, among countries that migration happens most are; Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo, Benin and Ghana, and places in Nigeria, are: Makoko, Badagry, Lagos Island, Oshodi (All in Lagos State) and Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The Head of Department (HOD), Social Work, Ogun State College of Health Technology (OSCOTECH),Ilese, Dr Mujaheed Adegbola while speaking on the link between Migration, Child Protection, Employment and Vocational Training, said “Child protection should be a means of protective accompaniment of children.
‘Framework should be Vocational Educational and Training (VET) factor as a means of empowerment for the migrant children. VET should be treated as post-migrant empowerment, while sector based and entrepreneurial programmes have the potentials to help integrate migrant children. There is a large area of needs and interests of migrants children (which bother mostly on greener pastures)”, he said.
The highlight of the event is distribution of life support equipment, such as; Hair Dryers, Clippers, Sewing Machines, Inverter presented to beneficiaries.