Refugees Internally Displaced Persons,
Migrants And Asylum Seekers

• Who is an IDP? – An internally displaced person (IDP) is a person who is forced to flee his or her home but remains within the borders of their country. 

• Who is a refugee? – A refugee is a person who is forced to flee his or her country and has been granted asylum in another country after Refugee Status Determination (RSD)

• Who is a migrant? – A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions

• Who is an asylum seeker? - An asylum seeker is a person who flees his or her home country, enters another country and applies for asylum, i.e. the right to international protection, in this other country but the application has not been approved. An asylum seeker is a type of migrant and may be a refugee, a displaced person, but not an economic migrant. Only asylum seekers who are granted refugee status are allowed to work in the country. 

Since the beginning of the existence of the human race, people have had to move from one place to another for diverse reasons. The reasons for such movement range from security, economic and pleasure to name a few. This continuous movement over time has created different issues across the globe which in turn has resulted in several regimes of legal provisions to regulate and deal with the issues raised by movement of people.

The Commission as part of it activities to protect and promote the human rights of IDPs, refugees and migrants partners with both national, international agencies and Civil Society Organizations. Some of those agencies include UNHCR, NCFRMI, IOM, Immigration Services to mention a few. 

The Commission is the Co-chair at the National Level of the Protection Sector Working Group, the group is made up of all organisations government and non-government, national and international working in the protection sector which deals mainly with IDPs, Refugees and Migrants.

The Commission is also partnering with the UNHCR to implement an IDP protection monitoring Project in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. The project which commenced in 2015 started with 9 states of the North East, North Central Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory. It was later scaled down to six and currently to three states. 

 

pattern