At least 155 Nigerians have voluntarily returned from Libya barely two weeks after 171 returned home from the north African country.
They were brought into Nigeria on Thursday aboard a chartered Nouvel Air aircraft with registration number TS-1NB.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the aircraft landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 6pm.
Like
the initial group which returned on March 7 after being stranded in
Libya while en route Europe, the returnees were brought back by the
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian embassy
in Libya.
They were received at the Hajj
Camp area of the airport by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service
(NIS), the National Agency for the Protection of Trafficking in Persons
(NAPTIP) and the police.
Officials of
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Airports
Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) were also on ground to receive them.
Onimode
Bandele, the director, search and rescue, NEMA, told journalists that
various agencies were on ground to welcome the returnees to their
fatherland.
“We are here to welcome our nationals who have signified their intention to come back home from Libya,” he said.
“The
returnees are being assisted back home by IOM, having been negotiated
out of detention centres in Libya for various immigration offences.
“We
had three medical cases on board; one is paralysis, the other one is a
psychiatric problem, while the third is a minor injury which has been
taken care of with the effort of the IOM doctors and the Port Health
Authority.”
Bandele said that the
Nigerians had gone to Libya in search of greener pastures, which
unfortunately turned out to be a terrible experience for them.
The
NEMA official disclosed that the voluntary return started in 2001 and
that about 7,000 Nigerians have been assisted by IOM to return home from
various countries.
“Between March
2016 and December 2016, IOM assisted 867 Nigerians back home. Since
February 2017 to date, we have had 654 Nigerians.
“This
means that between March 2016 and March 23, 2017, IOM assisted 1,521
Nigerians that have voluntarily returned to the country.
“This exercise is to ensure that they are well received and we are also in touch with their respective state governments,” he said.
The
returnees were profiled by immigration authorities and were each given
N19, 695 for transportation to their respective states.
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