UNHCR wants protection of refugees, IDPs strengthened

The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) has called for the need to strengthen the protection of refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) to ensure they enjoy their full human rights.

Mr Volker Türk, UNHCR’s Assistant High Commissioner on Protection, made this appeal during a visit to the Deputy Governor of Adamawa, Mr Martin Babale, in Yola.

Türk led the UN delegation to the North East states most devastated by insurgency. He explained that protection is the core responsibility of a state or a nation to ensure that its citizens, either vulnerable or not, enjoy their fundamental rights.He said that if protection policies are put in place by nation’s governments’ refugees, IDPs and other persons of concern would be able to enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination.

According to him, the focus must be permeated on interactions with persons of concern to design ways of addressing their plights.

"Part of that means providing prompt quality services, such as care to victims, legal assistance and supporting the voluntary return of refugees to their homes.

"It also means advocating for and intervening on behalf of refugees and other persons of concern when they are at risk, for example when in detention or in danger.

"UNHCR is committed to exercising its continuous supervisory role in relation to state and the North East at large," Turk said.

Earlier, Babale who received the UN delegates on behalf of the Gov. Bindow Jibrilla, noted that the state was the second most affected state by the insurgency in the North East region.

Jibrilla said that the state is an entry point for most of the returnees, where most of them are registered, profiled and returned to host communities or camps.

He said the registration and profiling of the returnees, who are mostly women and children at Sahuda boarder town in Adamawa, is done by stakeholders.

jibrilla said the state had recognised efforts of partners and agencies that are helping to alleviate the plight of IDPs.

"Adamawa State Government appreciates the efforts of agencies and organisations towards alleviating the problems brought on our people by the insurgency.

"We assure you that we are supporting their efforts as what they are doing is a source of great encouragement to us as government," he said.

However, the governor noted that some IDPs being harboured in the camps in the state were not indigenes of the state or Nigerians, adding that some came from Cameroon.

He said that it was the responsibility of the government to protect its citizens, ‎adding that their administration is doing everything possible to accommodate the IDPs.