12,574 Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya in 23 months ― NEMA

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday said 12,574 Nigerians have so far returned from Libya under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme, which began in April 2017.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Coordinator, NEMA Lagos Territorial Office, Malam Idris Muhammed made this while receiving a fresh batch of 174 Nigerians who arrived from Libya on Thursday night.

Muhammed lauded the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) for facilitating the return of Nigerians stranded in the volatile North African country.

According to him, over 4,900 of the returnees have also been trained on various skill acquisition and empowerment training by IOM through special funding facilitated by the EU.

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He added that most of these returnees had set up various businesses in their choice of occupation and were contributing their quota to national development.

Muhammed assured the returnees of the Federal Government’s readiness to continue to support and collaborate with other development partners in providing enabling environment for young Nigerians to actualise their potential.

He said the new returnees arrived on the 64th flight facilitated by the IOM and EU.

Muhammed said: “The returnees were brought back aboard an Al Buraq Airline Boeing 737-800 aircraft with flight number UZ 389-390 and registration number 5A-DMG.

“The aircraft arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 9.45 p.m.

“At the end of profiling, the breakdown of the returnees shows that they were 62 female adults, 11 female children and 11 female infants making a total of 84 females.

“The males were composed of 74 male adults, 12 male children and four male infants making a total of 90 males,” the NEMA coordinator said.