…As returnees await evacuation

International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has urged Nigerian journalists to shift from sensationalist headlines to human-centric, data-driven journalism to restore dignity and protection to displaced persons and returnees.

The IOM Head of Office in Lagos, Ali Ibrahim, made the call during a 3-day capacity building workshop for journalists on ethical and data-driven migration reporting, themed “From Headlines to Impact”, held yesterday in Lagos.

Ibrahim noted that public discourse surrounding migration is often clouded by controversies, crises, and stereotypes, stressing that the media must recognise the human faces behind the statistics.

He pointed that “Migration is many things to many people, but in the real sense, the reality is about people.
“People, real people with real stories. We want to talk about how we are going to tell their stories in a way that humanizes it, and dignifies it, and live their new experience together.”

To practicalise the training, the UN agency revealed that participating journalists would observe the arrival of an impending charter flight evacuating stranded Nigerian migrants from Libya, followed by a field visit to the airport transit centre to interface with the returnees.

The Head of Office explained that the exercises would expose journalists to the raw realities of the migration corridor, capturing narratives of hope, hard-earned experience, and the systemic violation of rights suffered by victims of irregular routes.

Providing a breakdown of the agency’s operational footprint, Project Assistant, IOM Awareness Raising team, Fatima Adeyemi, highlighted that while the agency’s strategic interventions in Northern Nigeria focus heavily on providing shelter, sanitation, energy, and protection for populations displaced by armed conflict, its Southern operations are heavily geared towards facilitating orderly migration management.

The agency noted that it is working closely with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to manage regional mobility, strengthen border structures, and provide secure data infrastructure to handle migration flows effectively across border regions.

The IOM reiterated its core mission to collaborate with state and non state actors to drive sustainable solutions to displacement, save lives, and facilitate regular migration pathways that shield vulnerable citizens from exploitation.

Earlier, IOM’s Senior Communications Assistant, Elijah Elaigwu, explained that the workshop seeks to empower journalists to better communicate issues of migration to the public for a humane and orderly migration and to ensure those intending to migrants do so the right way