- Safiu Kehinde
No fewer than 167 illegal migrants have returned to Nigeria after getting stranded in Libya.
This was confirmed in a statement issued on Wednesday by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
As contained in the statement posted on the agency’s official X handle, NEMA, in conjunction with other stakeholders received a total of 167 Nigerian returnees who were stranded in Libya.
The returnees comprising of 77 male adults, 69 female adults, 10 children, and 11 infants, arrived Nigeria on Monday through a chartered flight following their evacuation by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The statement read in part; “In furtherance to the evacuation of stranded and vulnerable Nigerians from Libya by International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the NEMA Lagos Territorial Office LTO in conjunction with other stakeholders received a total of 167 Nigerian returnees from Libya on 2 September, 2024.
“The returnees comprised 77 male adults, 69 female adults, 10 children and 11 infants.
“The charter flight that brought them was facilitated by IOM in collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria in line with humanitarian voluntary return initiative.
“The returnees arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International airport, Cargo Terminal at about 1551hours aboard Al-Buraq Boeing airline 787-500 with registration no: 5A-DMG.”
Other stakeholders involved in the evacuation of the stranded returnees include the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Department of State Services (DSS), National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and the Nigerian Police Force.