Six EU countries deport 41 Nigerians as 128 returns from Libya

Forty-one Nigerians were on Thursday deported from six European countries just as 128 voluntarily returned from Libya, daily trust reports.

The deportees comprising 35 males and six females were sent home from Austria, Germany, Hungry, Switzerland, Norway and Denmark, according to the information obtained from the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

This came two months after 34 Nigerians were repatriated for immigration related offences.

They were dumped at the cargo terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos after arriving on a Boeing 767-300 aircraft operated by Privilege Air with the registration number ECLZO at about 12: 05 p.m.

Spokesman of the airport Police Command, DSP Joseph Alabi confirmed that the deportees were sent home for overstaying their permit.

The deportees who were picked from different cities in the six European countries were accompanied by security agents who handed them to immigration officials.

In another development, 128 voluntary returnees were evacuated from Libya by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The returnees comprised of only two females and 126 males while six of them including the two females were brought with serious medical cases. They were evacuated in two NEMA ambulances brought to the airport.

One of the male returnees was evacuated from the aircraft with a sick bed as he arrived with three gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).

They arrived in a chartered Afriqiyah A320 aircraft with tail number 5A – ONA which landed at the cargo terminal at exactly 5:35.

Also officials of the NAPTIP, Immigration, FAAN and Refugees Commission were on ground to receive them.

South-West Coordinator of NEMA, Sulaiman Yakubu who received the returnees on behalf of the DG, Engr. Mustapha Maihaja said more people would soon be assisted back home as part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Federal Government has with IOM.