NEMA receives another batch of 162 stranded Nigerians from Libya

A total of 162 Nigerian returnees from the war-torn Libya were yesterday morning received by the Coordinator, Lagos Territorial Office of NEMA, Alhaji Idris A. Muhammed at the Cargo Wing of Murtala Muhammed International Airport.

The Returnees who arrived Lagos at 3:30 am, consisted of 100 females including 4 pregnant women and 62 males.

While  82 of the returnees made up of female adults, 13 children, 5 infants female and 50 adult males, other consists of  4 male children and 13 infants males.  Two minor medical cases were brought back.

The Coordinator while welcoming the Returnees and urging them to be agents of positive change, he appealed to them to take up the challenge against irregular migrations by telling whoever wants to embark on such dangerous journeys to desist from it.

His words: “Migration is protected by International and national statutes for movement of people through proper regularisation of papers that would protect and save you  against risks of irregular migrations.”

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Muhammed explained how NEMA hosted a team from European Union on monitoring and evaluation of the special EU intervention on assisted voluntary return of migrants and at the same time interfacing with them on the ways to improve the present European Assisted Voluntary Returnees projects being run by IOM.

According to him, gaps were identified especially on logistics which hitherto had been causing nightmares to stakeholders and the Returnees while he assured of the move to improve upon rescheduling aircraft charter flights.

The exercise which began in April 2017 is expected to end by April 2020 and about 8,808 Returnees have so far been repatriated back home to Nigeria from North Africa.