The penchant for desperate Nigerian youths to scramble out of the country without proper documents has come home to roost. Immigration authorities around the globe seem to have risen to the challenge posed by Nigerians who call at their shores without the required documents. The numbers have been staggering. Reports say that in the first half of this year alone, over four thousand Nigerians were repatriated from various countries in Europe, the US and some African countries through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), in Lagos.
According to the report from the Ministry of Interior, the deportees were brought home through both chartered and regular flights. The document showed that between January and June, this year, about two thousand two hundred Nigerians were deported through chartered flights mainly from Libya and a few European countries.
The breakdown of the deportees showed that about 1,300 of them were males while the other 930 were females. About 2,000 Nigerians were deported through regular flights, which were mainly from Europe, South Africa and a few African countries. The composition of the deportees revealed that just like in the chartered flights, majority of them were males.
According to the report, males deported in the first half of the year were 1,502 while 528 others were female. Out of these numbers, those who were involved in criminal activities in their host countries were handed over to the Nigeria Police for further prosecution; some who were involved in drug related matters were handed over to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the airport while others were returned to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).
The report further revealed that in the first half of the year, 691,954 passengers both Nigerians and foreigners used the facilities at MMIA to depart to various destinations from the country.
Out of these numbers, 519,215 were Nigerians with higher number of males while another 179,739 were foreigners departing the country.
Also, within the period, 550,988 passengers arrived in Nigeria through the international wing of the Lagos Airport. The breakdown revealed that 392,237 of them were Nigerians while the other 158,751 were foreigners from various countries.
According to the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) the statistics are important for the federal government to know the numbers of people entering or exiting the country, adding that this would enable the government to monitor and plan adequately.
