Dr Abiola Adimula of the University of Ilorin has advocated for greater global support for refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
Adimula made the call on Saturday in a statement made available to newsmen to commemorate the 2020 World Refugees Day.
She called on the Federal Government to take more proactive measures to provide good health facilities, welfare items and economic empowerment for IDPs.
According to Adimula, every action counts in supporting stateless people and their hosts.
“Everyone, including refugees, can contribute to the society and every action counts in the efforts to create a more just, inclusive and equal world.
“Whoever you are,no matter where you come from, every one of us can make a difference.
“Every action truly counts; do an action today to support the refugees and the IDPs,” said Adimula, who has bias for research in Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons,” she said.
The don said the day was being celebrated to provide an opportunity to raise public awareness about the condition of refugees and the need to help rebuild their lives.
She said that an average of 42,500 people flee their homes daily to seek protection within or outside of the borders of their own countries.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent anti-racist protests have shown us how desperately we need to fight for a more inclusive and equal world, a world where no one is left behind.
” It has never been clearer that we all have a role to play in bringing about change.
“Refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world. The 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol help protect them.
” They are the only global legal instruments explicitly covering the most important aspects of a refugee’s life.
” According to their provisions, refugees deserve, as a minimum, the same standards of treatment enjoyed by other foreign nationals in a given country and, in many cases, the same treatment as nationals.
“Similarly, by virtue of the provisions of 1998 UN Guidelines on Internal Displacement, IDPs are entitled to the same rights and treatment as other nationals of their country,” she said.
Adimula urged people to welcome refugees into their communities, saying if they were accepted and welcomed to learn and grow, they will contribute socially and economically to their receiving countries.
” It is high time we acknowledged the strength, courage, perseverance of refugees and the contributions they make to communities around the world.
“In this COVID-19 challenging time, we have seen a connectedness that transcends borders,“she said.
She urged people to draw inspiration from the resilience refugees had shown in overcoming their own crisis of displacement and dispossession in the present efforts to fight COVID-19 pandemic.
Adimula, however, expressed concerns over the spread of COVID-19 among IDPs in Maiduguri, Borno.
