It will still be awhile for all the talk about pan-Africanism, economic integration and entry without visa to take root in parts of Africa. This is because while some progressive measures are being taken by a few countries, the bulk of old school ideologists continue to look the other way. Nigerian officials have declared that more than 200 Nigerian migrants stranded in Libya have been returned to their home country.
The officials stated that 242 migrants landed at Lagos airport on a Libyan airline flight at around 9pm local time last Tuesday. Among them were women carrying children and at least one man in a wheelchair. The officials have credited the International Organization of Migration, IOM, for collaborating strongly with the federal government for the smooth return of the migrants from Libya. Some of the migrants who returned had been in Libyan detention camps while some of them willingly approached the Nigerian embassy in Libya to return home because of the hardship they had experienced there.
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, explained that the Nigerian government had been working with the IOM and the Nigerian Commission for Refugees and Migrants, NCFRMI, and other local agencies for the past year to bring the stranded Nigerians back home. She said that about 5000 Nigerians had come back from Libya in the past year. According to her, the NCIFRM has been processing on average between eight to 10 flights per month for Nigerians returning from Libya.
An ambassador for NCFRMI, Nikky Laoye, who filmed the arrivals, told reporters: “It was quite emotional seeing the gestures made by the immigrants on arrival. We heard about their ordeal in the desert, some of them were praying to die. No water to drink, thrown into jail and finally given the option to go back to their country.”
Mrs. Laoye continued, “Many of them had traveled illegally through the desert trying to reach Italy via Libya before finding themselves in tight situations, thrown into jail for illegal entry or falling into the hands of wrong people and being sold into slavery/prostitution.”
The envoy said the new arrivals would be profiled and registered by the Nigerian authorities. Some of them were taken to a shelter run by the NCIFRM in Lagos, where they can remain for up to 90 days. She point outed that officials from Edo State, where a large number of the migrants come from, were concluding arrangements to take the migrants back to the state.
