Event report

E-Conference on the Future of Europe from the viewpoint of Migration was organized by Embassy of Hungary in Abuja on the 18th of February 2022. Participants were mostly targeted experts and representatives from humanitarian and development organizations from Nigeria and Hungary, just like Hungary Helps Agency, Nigerian in Diaspora Organization (Hungary), Learning through Skills Acquisition Initiative (LETSAI), Neem Foundation and other private participants. Embassy of Hungary has settled the following thesis as core discussion topic: Hungary has recognized the need for close and effective co-operation between Europe and Africa in order to tackle the immigration crisis, as the current situation is not good for either party. Government of Hungary has created the so-called Africa Strategy in 2019. Focal points of this strategy to bloom the economic relations between Hungary and sub-Sahara Regio through boost export-import connections, committing international development projects on the sectors of water management, infrastructure development, security, cybersecurity, agriculture, health and medical technology. Basic concept of Government of Hungary, that the best way to manage illegal immigration from Africa is to provide livelihoods locally. Achieving this goal requires high level of security, adequate education and health system, and job creation. Central questions, what participants had to face were: • Is immigration an essential issue of current days? • Do we have to make efforts to reduce migration? If yes, what kind of actions are required? • Good examples / best practices can be mentioned? Introduction of the participants: • Hungary Helps Agency is responsible for providing rapid and effective assistance within the scope of the Hungary Helps Program. As a governmental agency, their organization is working in the spirit of the Fundamental Law of Hungary, emphasizing the respect of freedom and culture of other nations and endeavouring to cooperate with all nations of the world to base the human existence on dignity. Approach of Hungary Helps Agency is to act on the local level, respecting the humanitarian principles and all human rights. They design the projects according to local needs based on reports of representatives of local communities and implement them with local partners, notably local Faith-Based Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations. • LETSAI (Learning through Skills Acquisition Initiative) is a youth and women focused non- profit organization established in June 2015. LETSAI particularly targets women, youths and children, the most vulnerable members of the society; it addresses protection issues through sustainable livelihood, Gender Based Violence (GBV), psychosocial support through women groups and counselling session and women empowerment interventions. LETSAI is to create sustainable livelihood by imparting scoop skills to the unskilled; to eradicate poverty through provision of jobs; to foster developmental skills and financial literacy. • Neem Foundation is a leading crisis response organisation committed to promoting the protection and wellbeing of populations and communities living in contexts affected by conflict, violence, and fragility. The Foundation strengthen the resilience and capacity of crisis-affected communities across the Lake Chad Basin region to adopt inclusive approaches to recovery from the effects of instability and mitigate future crises. The Foundation achieves these by providing and raising the standards of mental health and psychosocial support for trauma-affected populations. They design and deliver reintegration and stabilisation services that target displaced communities as well as former associates of violent armed groups. • Nigerians in Diaspora Organization Hungary. The central vision of NIDO Hungary is to bring Nigerians living in Hungary together and to identify those willing to offer their skills (Education, Information Technology, Health, Economic, science, Administration, Law, Political and Corporate Governance, Management etc.) to assist Nigeria’s national development. These skills will be needed in developmental projects by government and non-governmental organisations. NIDO Hungary as a result requires those Nigerians living in Hungary who can afford to spend a period of time in Nigeria to contribute their skills to help Nigeria’s developmental process. NIDO Hungary provides the unique opportunity for Nigerians living in Hungary to learn to work and collaborate with one another in the task of nation building of Nigerians homeland. The organisation strongly believes that Nigerians in Hungary can make significant contributions towards Nigeria through programs, policies, and advocacy to harness their talents, expertise, and resources for Nigeria’s development and nation building. As a summary, we can say that participants agree with the basic thesis that illegal immigration is a core issue of current days. Above this, we also have to emphasise, that immigration is just a symptom, which is caused by mostly security issues, and also by weak local infrastructure, lack of quality education and shortage of jobs. Local and (and also international) humanitarian and development agencies have a key role, they have already showed and proved a sustainable way of local solutions, although the amount of available resources means serious obstacles many times. It would be easy to say that security issues have to be solved before anything else, but if we take a deeper insight, we have to admit that challenges are in matrix connection, so every piece of hardship is connected to each other, therefore all the challenges have to be deal parallel at the same time. This is the way what drives us to the reduction of the level of illegal immigration.