241 Nigerians begged to return from Libya
*Under-aged among returnees
*IOM offers $50 to each deportee
Two hundred and fourty one Nigerians were voluntarily returned to Nigeria. The Assisted Voluntary Returnees (AVRs) came aboard a Libyan Airlines’ Airbus A330-200 chartered flight. They had in the last few weeks pleaded to return to their home country to escape alleged hostility faced in the host country.
It was learnt that most of them were stranded in Libya after they failed to cross high sea to Europe, coupled with immigration issues that landed them in prisons.
Over 80 per cent of them are between the age of 15 and 25 years, amongst them nine under-aged among them.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) facilitated their return back to Nigeria after they volunteered to return, while the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other related Matters (NAPTIP) are ensuring their welfare in Nigeria.
Speaking with journalists at Lagos Airport, the Head of Lagos Office, and International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Dr. Nahashon Thuo, said that 241 Voluntary Returnees were brought back from Libya on their own volition.
He added that of the 241 Voluntary Returnees, 174 are male, 67 women and among these numbers are three children and three infants.
Speaking on why they were returned to the country, the IOM Representative in Lagos disclosed that some of them were trying to cross over to Europe but failed and that they were arrested by the Libyan Immigration while others committed immigration offences while in the country.
He further stated that they were brought by IOM when they signaled their interest to return home.
Also speaking, the Director of Relief and Rehabilitation National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Aliyu Sambo, said that the Voluntary Returnees were brought back to the country by IOM because they said that they want to return to Nigeria.
The Director stated that the Voluntary Returnees, who were in track suit provided by IOM would be given $50 after the agency officials must have talked to them.
One of the returnees, who was assisted into a waiting NEMA ambulance told journalists that he was shot in Libya by the man he was working for, adding that it was good he came back.
The returnees on alighting from the Libyan Airlines were directed into a waiting coastal bus that will convey them to where documentation would take place.
Apart from very few of the returnees, who were still looking good, majority of them, carried bushy beards and hairs on their head, looks that suggest that they may have been kept in camps for days before they were airlifted to Nigeria by IOM.
Agency that were on hand to receive the returnees includes Nigeria Immigration Service, (Port Health from the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Agency against Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIPs)
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