James Imoyera, is the Assistant General Secretary, AGS, in charge of Education and Labour Migration in the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC). In this interview with Labour Vanguard, he speaks on the challenges facing the Nigerian migrants, why they are abused  among others.

 Excerpts:

By Emmanuel Elebeke

WHAT is NLC take on labour migration?

Migration is a key issue in the globalized world. Migration is synonymous with human existence. It is a long historical thing that people move across border.

It is a known fact that about 80 per cent of  people who migrate do so for economic reasons, for  greener pasture. They earn their daily bread within the country and also outside the country. Therefore, labour migration is a very important aspect of migration. As a trade union movement, we are  interested in labour migration.

Migrant workers’ issue has taken a new dimension globally. What does Nigerian labour law says about this category of workers?

Labour employment law is a vast issue. As you are aware, Nigerian labour law is non discriminatory in principle. What it means is whether you are a migrant or Nigerian, you are supposed to be protected equally by the Nigerian labour law.

Irregular migrants

But most times in practice, it is not so. Why, because of this dichotomy of regular and irregular migrants.

For regular migrants who have legal status, they can openly come out to defend their rights when violated. But for an irregular migrants, who may not have documented status most times out of fear, they can’t come out to fight for their rights. This is not restricted to Nigeria, it applies also to Nigerian migrants , who migrate to other countries. That is where you have series of ill-treatment meted out to migrants.

What is Nigerian government doing about it?

The federal government through the Federal Executive Council, FEC, approved the National Migration Policy, NMP,  last year. The FEC also approved the National Policy on Labour, which has two existing policies now. The NMP derives its legitimacy from National Policy on Migration. This deals with all manner of labour issues, labour migration, international labour  migration. The reason behind the policy is to structure how labour migration will be better managed.  Until recently, Nigeria had no national migration policy. All migration issues discussed were based on bilateral agreements. Migration agreements had not been driven by the policy. Now that we have a policy, I believe migration will be better managed.

What is NLEX all about?

The National Labour Electronix Exchange, NLEX,  is basically a system where skills are uploaded, so that recruiters, whether national or internationally can go there  to look for skills.

Labour agency

It is a skill-match website that makes available skills in the Nigerian labour market known. An employer or labour agency who wants an employee, goes there and looks at the data  and makes choice of labour he or she needs.

How do you respond to  claims that Nigerian migrants are unskilled?

I do not agree  that Nigerian migrants are not skilled. But the problem is the irregular labour migrants  who engage in unskilled jobs. They pass through the desert and Mediterranean Sea to Europe without openly coming out to say, I want to be a lecturer as a PhD holder for example. Therefore, they engage in under employment.

If PhD holders are migrating to Europe because they are needed, agreement must have been reached between the recruting agency and Nigeria. With this you can’t go there and become a taxi driver.

If there is structured bilateral agreement, the terms and conditions of working will be well defined and stated, so that when these people go there, there will be no discrimination. They will base their working agreement on terms.

But if they go there as  irregular migrants, maybe with tourism visa, they can be discriminated against because they don’t have working visa and they will be hiding to work. But in terms of skills, the essence of better migration policy bilateral agreement is that if there are areas Nigeria is short of skills, you identify countries that have sufficient skills. If there are countries that are short of skills that are sufficient in Nigeria, Nigeria will supply them. That is why migration should be structured.

In Nigeria, there are no organized form of migration. It is basically irregular and that is why Nigerian migrants are under-employed, engaged in hazardous jobs, slave labour and hide in container to go to Europe. Otherwise, how can you say you are an engineer and you work in a restaurant?

How do you monitor oversea workers?

We can only monitor those we know. First, we have data problems because many migrant workers hide their identity while migrating.

In that case, you hardly know who migrated to do a  job genuinely. In that case, we cannot know who to fight for.

But what we have done in trade union movement is to collaborate with our sister union organizations in other countries.

Living in Germany

In United Kingdom, UK, we have collaboration with her labour union, whereby if there are migrants who are teaching there, we can have their records. We also try to make sure that they are members of teachers union there.

Another challenge we face is that these migrants hardly belong to union. If he or she is not a union member, the union will not have a record of him or her.

I had opportunity of living in Germany and the Nigerian embassy never knew I was in Germany.

What will you tell those who believe the economic reality in Nigeria encourages irregular migration?

The economy of Nigeria is a push factor for people to migrate irregularly. Again, we need a lot of sensitization and enlightenments. There is need to educate Nigerians on NMP. It is not just enough to have these policies in shelves but Nigerians must know about them. There are better ways to migrate than to follow the irregular roots.

If we have structured migration policy, whether on labour exchange or bilateral agreement, it is better because bilateral agreement will give you quota that we need.

How you address the Push factor?

The solution is good governance. First, many Nigerians may not migrate because they want to migrate, but because of the hardship in the country. They see Europe as a greener land. Yet migration cannot be stopped but can be better managed. There are many graduates roaming the streets, any little opportunity to migrate they run away.

How do you protect migrants’ rights?

Whether  regular or irregular, your rights must be protected.   You have a right to life, to security, possibly to education and right to fair treatment among others.

Right to fair treatment

As far as you work  in the country, you have the right to be protected by the labour law of that country. But because most people migrate irregularly, when their rights are violated, they can’t go and report when the first thing they will ask is your document. So even if your employer is paying you half of what it is paying its nationals, you wouldn’t talk about it because if you go to any labour authority to report, they will ask you how you came into the country. For you to report anything there, you must show valid document and you do not have it. So, you will continue to hide and your employer will be exploiting you.

What about local content?

It is not for the labour movement to look into this. There are government agencies in the ministry of interior like immigration and border control agency, who monitor who enters Nigeria.

But the issue of expatriates also falls into the hands of regulatory authority. However, we have members in those industries where people work.

I also feel that labour movement should insist contractors must not import certain category of workers.

British government is planning to stop foreign students to go home after their graduations?

I don’t know much about that, but the fall and economic meltdown, has made countries to adopt policies because they are also facing hardship. Probably, their priority is to face their citizens first before others. And when they begin to see that through these migration, others can share what their people should get, they are bound to take this kind of decision.

There are increasing concerns that the National Industrial Court (NIC) is not living up its responsibilities?

There are two structured systems in dealing with migration issues. First is the industrial arbitration, second is the national Indusial Court (NIC).

The Industrial Arbitration Panel is not a court of record, they can arbitrate, mediate on issues that have to do with labour under the ministry of labour. Before the amendment, the Minister referred it to NIC if there is need.

With the amendment of NIC Act, it now becomes a court of superior record. It can now make judgment. Individuals or parties can now go to NIC to seek justice. I am not sure NIC is sufficient but I know it does not have offices in all the states like every other court we have in all the states. Comparing the size of Nigeria, if it seats only in six zones, definitely, it will not be sufficient.

I think they need more. We are also agitating for a review of the Act because the court has become too legalistic. Before then, you have a panel of judges, representative of labour movement and somebody who will represent the employee.

Our argument is that labour issues are social issues. They may not be too legalistic and again, you cannot approach the court now without a lawyer. The court now is no longer a labour court. So, if I don’t have money to hire a lawyer, I cannot approach the judge.