By Mercy Omoike and Nefishetu Yakubu
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Nigeria, says it is administering medical aids to 7 migrants with severe medical among the 182 recently returnee migrants from Libya.
The IOM Lagos Transit Centre manager, Mr Stanley Ukaegbu, disclosed to newsmen on Wednesday during a tour of its Migration Transit Centre at Igando Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria NAN reports that the IOM in a chartered flight on Tuesday received 180 voluntary returnee migrants at the Lagos Murtala Mohammed International Airport.
Following their arrival in Lagos, IOM moved them to the Transit Centre before further Reintegration efforts commences for the migrants.
Ukaegbu said among the 182 migrants received, seven are currently other undergoing medical interventions by IOM team at the transit centre.
“We brought the 180 migrants we received from Libya last night to our transit centre just to stabilise them before sending them to the family.
“Among the immigrants our medical team, are treating seven with severe medical conditions.
“The ones with critical conditions will be moved to the hospitals through LASEMA’s emergency van and the bills will be covered by IOM.
“We partner with a lot of government agencies like LASEMA and NCFRI to reach out to the migrants, as we gradually reintegrate them into society.
“So, when the migrants came in, initially, we provided them with medical care, however other issues related to migrants are not solely to be handled by the organization,” Ukaegbu said.
According to him, There we have several collaboration between the government and IOM.
The Lagos state government through LASEMA provided the place to keep these migrants so that we have enough time to take care of their needs medical, psychosocial and social needs.
“The Transit Centre is fully managed by these organizations, IOM just renders technical support, with funding from the European Union.
“We received the migrants, on Tuesday and they will be with us for a maximum of four days.
“We also prepare meals to serve the migrants for the period they are in the transit centre, and the meals are normal, standard meals, not their halal meals that can fit everyone.
“In addition we make provision for other None Food Items (NFIs) like toiletries, soaps and their basic necessities,” he said.
On her part, Dr Utibe Ikoiwak, Medical Doctor at IOM Transit Centre Lagos, said they Migrants are treated based on their diagnosis. With treatment including evaluation of their mental health.
“We have two sets of migrants we are attending to at the IOM Transit medical centre. We some from the Benghazi city and people from the detention camps.
“With migrants from the city that we see here in the clinic, they usually have general complaints like they body pain, headache, and all that.
“And some of them also have complaints from flying, due to changing time zones and jet lag. Then some complain of respiratory tract infections and cataracts.
“So, for those that come from the detention camps, they don’t really do well. They’ve been in detention for some time, and most of them are in prison.
“They have complaints about body itching. The most common stuff we hear about is that the water is really salty. So, when they use it to bathe, it really affects them. They have lice and bedbug infestation.
“We also have a few cases of tuberculosis, and in the previous charter, we had an outbreak of chicken pox,”Ikoiwak said.
She also noted that, “The common ailments we deal with among the returnee migrants is the psychological effect of having to migrate and what they have been through. They have not been through an easy journey. Most of their stories are really scary.
“Most of them are very young people. Others have been promised things that their expectations were not fulfilled,” she said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
DMO/NY
