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🇳🇬 Nigeria /Culture & Society

Ebola: Nigerian borders not porous, says immigration

From The Punch · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Nigeria's Immigration Service assures that its borders are not porous and are actively monitored to prevent the entry of the Ebola virus.
  • The service employs both personnel and digital surveillance infrastructure to manage over 4,000 kilometers of land borders with neighboring countries.
  • NIS stated it awaits advisories from health agencies like the NCDC to determine the threat level and deploy specific measures.

Nigeria's Immigration Service (NIS) has moved to allay fears that the country's extensive land borders could be exploited for the unchecked entry of the Ebola virus, currently causing concern due to outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.

Our borders are not porous. Anyone who comes in through our borders is known. They must show proper documents, including an international health certificate.

· Akinsola AkinlabiAddressing concerns about the porosity of Nigeria's borders in relation to the Ebola virus outbreak.

Service spokesperson Akinsola Akinlabi asserted that all border crossings are manned and equipped with digital surveillance to monitor routes that might be difficult for personnel alone to cover. He emphasized that anyone entering Nigeria must present proper documentation, including an international health certificate, and that the NIS's role is to prevent unauthorized individuals from entering the country.

For us, a porous border is one that is not manned. All our borders are manned. For us, it is not a question of the porosity of borders, it is how expansive our borders are and what things the government has done to address those challenges.

· Akinsola AkinlabiExplaining the Nigeria Immigration Service's definition of a porous border and its approach to border management.

Despite Nigeria sharing over 4,000 kilometers of land borders with Benin, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon, where informal crossing points are known to exist, Akinlabi dismissed the characterization of the borders as porous. He explained that the NIS uses technology, such as the Integrated Border Management System and the Migration Information and Data Analysis System, to enhance surveillance and compensate for the vastness of the borders.

Part of the things the government has done is to introduce our Integrated Border Management System and our Migration Information and Data Analysis System.

· Akinsola AkinlabiHighlighting technological investments made by the government to strengthen border surveillance.

Akinlabi also referenced Nigeria's past pandemic responses, noting the deployment of health officials to airports during previous outbreaks. The NIS indicated it would follow the lead of health agencies like the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Ministry of Health to assess the threat level before implementing specific measures.

Normally, we will wait for the advisory from the NCDC and the health ministry in this case. So, we are waiting for the agencies involved to tell us the threat level that we face.

· Akinsola AkinlabiStating the NIS's protocol of deferring to health agencies for threat assessment during disease outbreaks.
About this summary

Originally published by The Punch. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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