Razaq Bamidele
The Journalists International Forum for Migration (JIFORM), has, Monday, released a report on an important session delivered by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Gambia, on migration terms and concept aimed at guiding the reportage of migration matters.
The report was part of the 2020 edition of the Forum’s annual summit held on October 15 and 16, 2020 at the Pensioners FM, Onireke, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria.
The event chaired by Prof. Patrick Lumumba from Kenya accommodated virtual and physical presentations was attended by over 140 participants from countries like Germany, United States of America (USA), Lebanon, Ghana, Zambia, Canada, England, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Kenya, Zimbabwe,The Gambia, Togo, France, India, Nigeria, among others.
The terminologies released were contained in a statement issued, on Monday, by Ajibola Abayomi, JIFORM President, a body with over 250 journalists spread across the world covering migration, where he said the presentation by Awa Loum Jagne, an official of IOM Gambia was the reality that journalists especially in Africa must educate themselves about while reporting issues about migrants.
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“We as media practitioners must brace up to the reality of what we don’t know in details and accept to learn new things. What many of us summarily call illegal migration or migrants has to change. The media must refrain from worsening or blaming migrants with a predetermined mind,” Ajibola cautioned.
The President, who described IOM Gambia as a committed body chorusing orderly, save and regular migration said JIFORM would continue to reach out to the agency and others for the good of humanity.
While JIFORM is gearing towards producing a detail compendium on migration terminologies for migration journalists across the globe that would be unveiled in Ghana by January 21 and 22, 2021, Ajibola said the IOM presentation was indeed an eye opener on definition of migrants and categories of people classified as refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
“IOM Gambia reinforced the fact that according to Article 13 of United Nations (UN) Declaration on Human Rights: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Migration: 21st Century Trend:
“There were 1.012 billion migrants in the world in 2019 • 740 million were internal migrants (2009) • 272 million were international migrants (2019) • Equates to 3.5 per cent of the global population Migration,” Ajibola submitted, adding that all these are what all journalists covering migration must be familiar with.