The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Mustapha Ahmed, on Wednesday received a batch of 178 returnees from the North Africa country, Libya.
Driving the news
NEMA Chief, represented by the Acting Coordinator of the Lagos Territorial Office of the agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed that the returnees re-entered the country with the help of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) through a voluntary repatriation programme.
- The returnees consisted of 63 men, 73 women, 15 male and 13 female children, six female infants and eight male infants.
Why this matters
The ongoing evacuation of Nigerians from a fellow African country shows the commitment of the federal government in helping its citizens stranded in foreign lands. The federal government put in similar efforts when the Polish government detained Nigerians who fled Ukraine in the early days of the invasion of the country by Russia.
What you should know
- Since 2017, the IOM has assisted in returning over about 20,000 stranded Nigerians to the country.
- The federal government and IOM have jointly partnered to return over 1500 persons to Nigeria from Libya in 3 years. And 344 people in the month of June alone.
- Most of the returnees got stranded from searching for greener pastures in foreign countries.
What they are saying
The NEMA Chief encouraged the returnees “to be positive ambassadors toward advocacy and sensitization against irregular migration that leave the youths vulnerable to all sorts of abuses and death in extreme cases.”