The Nigeria Immigration Service has lamented that its officials are inadequately equipped to secure the maritime domain.

This was said by the Assistant Comptroller-General Immigration, Border Patrol and Marine Service Headquarters Abuja, Saro-John Uaebari, at a three-day capacity building workshop on interagency cooperation held in Lagos.

The workshop was carried out in partnership with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and funded by the European Union.

Uaebari said, “We have had the opportunity to see how our counterparts in Europe carry out their duties. As much as possible, the sole aim of every government agency at the port is to secure our maritime domain.

“However, not all agencies have the facilities they need. We strive to do our best but most of the time, we are hampered; there are no boats to work. We are appealing for interagency cooperation as to the use of facilities in securing our maritime domain.”

The Comptroller Immigration, Lagos Seaports/Marine Command, Modupe Anyalebechi, said the major function of the immigration service was to achieve the security and safety of the maritime domain and waterways.

She said, “We also cooperate with other agencies at the seaports to achieve this goal. When the vessels arrive, our officers board them to carry out their duties and ensure those on board have the necessary documentation.

“We rarely have issues of stowaways from the EU here. There are jetties at Apapa and Tincan being run by senior officers. The operations across all the units and jetties are all the same. Statistics are compiled monthly and sent to the command headquarters and from there to the service headquarters.”

The leader of the ICMPD delegation to Nigeria, Paula Duynor, assured the NIS that the information gathered during the workshop would be built into a training curriculum for maritime border management.

She said, “Thank you for sharing your expertise with us on maritime border management. In the course of this programme, you have had the opportunity to exchange information on maritime border management with the participation of three experts here from Ukraine, Italy and Portugal and colleagues from other agencies.

“We have had the opportunity to go the different areas of migration management in the field of maritime borders. We have also had the opportunity to go to Abuja and Calabar to learn more from the authorities, which allow the experts to develop an assessment report of the situation at the maritime borders and to make recommendations, which will be used in the training curriculum for maritime border management.”

Azeez