Appolos Christian
Health workers in Nigeria’s public sector, who affiliated under the umbrella of Public Service International (PSI) on Tuesday visited a displaced persons camp in Karamajiji, Abuja to mark this year’s world Humanitarian day.
Speaking during the the visit, President of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Comrade Biobelemoye Joy Josiah described the plight of the IDPs as pathetic.
The World Humanitarian Day (WHD) is held every year on 19 August to celebrate aid workers who risk their lives in humanitarian service, and to rally support for people affected by crises around the world.
This year’s visit was done in partnership with the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI).
Biobelemoye explained that the Public Services International (PSI) is a global trade union federation representing 20 million working women and men who deliver vital public services in 163 countries.
He however said the PSI Nigeria Coordinating Council decided to use this year’s event to visit the Karamajiji camp and draw attention to the living conditions of IDPs
Biobelemoye said this year’s event is very important because it is coming at a time health workers are at the forefront of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He however drew government attention to the plight of health workers in the northeast who are also caring for those affected by the humanitarian crisis in the region.
He said the threat to health workers in the northeast is very glaring, citing instances where some health workers have been kidnapped or killed.
He said further, “I want to use this opportunity on this Humanitarian Day to make an humanitarian appeal to the government to wear a humanitarian face to attend to health workers plight by not discriminating in the COVID-19 health allowance, by not withholding salaries of health workers.”
He said, “It is expected that on this day, everybody is expected to give a helping hand, those that have should give to those who don’t have. For us at PSI, we decided to use this day to show solidarity with the IDPs here. After carrying our accessment, we discovered that this particular IDPs camp, people hard visit, so we made it our top priority. We have visited other IDPs in previous years.
The MHWUN President said public service union especially those in the health sector will continue to do their best to support the down trodden
The health workers were drawn from Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), National Association of Nurses and Midwives (NANM) and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), h
Also speaking, the Principal admin officer IDPs department at the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Nasir Mohammed Abubakar said the Commission as an agency of government has carried out some intervention in order to provide medical and non medical care to the IDPs
He said most of the camp dwellers are from Gwoza in Borno state.
