Austria has completed the process of organising skills acquisition programmes for at least 1000 Nigerian irregular migrants in Austria before their repatriation.
The country’s Director-General, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Mr. Michael Spindelegger, said in Abuja at a meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama.
Spindelegger said that ICMPD, with its headquarters in Austria, would start the programme with Nigeria as a pilot scheme before extending to others.
He said that the programme was to prepare the migrants for gainful employment which some Austrian companies were to set up later in Nigeria.
The centre director-general said that the proposed programme would facilitate reversed migration of the irregular migrants, who had no likelihood of being given legal residents in Austria.
“It is a new idea of how to combine future investment in Nigeria with the return of irregular migrants.
“A lot of companies are interested in investing in Nigeria because of its market.
‘“The idea is to train these irregular migrants before repatriating them so that when they come back, they will have something to do instead of becoming liabilities.
NAN
Emeh Achanga,the CEO of the Miss Petite Nigeria Brand is a lawyer turned blogger. She is very passionate about writing, with several publications and awards to her credit .She is currently working on publishing a collection of short stories which are basically a memoir about her exciting true experiences.
