Japa: Nigerians in Europe Don’t Have It Easy

Nigerians who wish to flee their country’s growing suffering by applying for visas or using other unauthorized means to immigrate to Europe will find it extremely difficult to survive there, given how difficult life is right now.

The collapsing economy has driven many Nigerians to join the “Japa” syndrome in recent years, particularly in the last seven months, due to the appalling conditions. This phenomenon is characterized by angry Nigerians leaving their home country in search of better opportunities overseas.
However, Europe is a challenging environment for Nigerians, despite being one of the most popular destinations for prospective emigrants from Nigeria. As EU countries tighten the noose against foreigners, there are already growing limitations against foreign migrants in various European countries, with limited room and declining job chances for Nigerians.

The Belgian government issued a warning on Friday to Nigerians who are traveling to Belgium in search of better opportunities to reconsider their actions before making such dangerous and sometimes unsuccessful excursions. Reasonably priced jobs are hard to come by in Europe, and it may be extremely difficult to survive without one.
Criminal groups often push young Nigerian women who are trafficked into Europe into prostitution, manipulating and exploiting them for their financial advantage, resulting in horrific experiences.
At a press conference in Abuja, Mr. Freddy Roosemont, Director General of the Office of Foreigners in Belgium, stated that there are now no places in his country for people to relocate to because so many undocumented migrants wind up on the streets. Thus, he emphasized that the majority of hopes for a better life in Europe remain unfulfilled.

During the conference tagged “Safe Travelling Awareness for At-Risk Youth” he said “First of all, it is important to inform the people correctly, because they often leave with a dream. If I say to the investor, you’re going to win the lottery next week and it’s going to bring you a million Euros and he believes me it will be a dream, is that dream realistic? Not at all.
“So, first of all, you have to take away the dream. The dream is not real. That’s why I’m telling you and I hope that through you, the public is aware that the dream is not real. It’s not easy to survive in Europe, without a decent job.

“The second thing is of course, we have legal migration, but legal migration will not be for 10,000 or for 5,000 people. It will be for a number of people who have gone through a number of conditions.
Somebody who wants to study in Belgium is very welcome. “But he first has to show to the university that he will be capable of following the studies there in English, that if he’s studying medicine, that he has a sort of basics to study medicine, if he wants to become an engineer. That he has technical knowledge, that he is good in Mathematics and so on. So, it’s the university that is going to select who they let in, not only from Nigeria.”
Nigerians were also warned that coming to Belgium with the intention to seek asylum would not also work, as there are low chances of obtaining a residence permit.
Roosemont said further “so at that moment, we have to limit the reception of asylum seekers only to people who are vulnerable and that means families, women with children. No man alone, not in that group.

“So, for the moment there are lots of these asylum seekers living in Brussels on the street, and I can assure you the temperature in Brussels is not what it is here in Abuja. It got to minus seven, minus five. Now it’s around zero Celsius. “So, it’s really not easy to survive in Brussels without assistance.”
Although Belgium is obliged by law to give that assistance it simply can’t do it because places are filled up.
The Belgian said further that “secondly, we also see that a lot of people, especially girls are forced into prostitution in the big cities. If we find girls like that, we try to help them.”

The Belgium Justice Department also makes an effort to help girls who want to leave the profession to restore their humanity but the number of migrant prostitutes keeps increasing such that the Belgian authorities are reportedly alarmed and are now applying strident measures to curb the menace.
Roosemont pleaded with the media to help educate the people. He said “notify the youth that the dream to go to Europe, to go to Belgium is not realistic and it’s very dangerous. So, that’s also the reason why we were here in Nigeria last week to try to inform the youth directly or indirectly.”