UK granted us visa waiver, say 58 doctors intercepted at airport by Immigration

Following a report by the Nigerian Tribune newspapers that the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos stopped 58 Nigerian Doctors from travelling to the United Kingdom (UK) because only two out of the Doctors had Visa on them, a cross-section of the affected Doctors have said that they were given Visa waiver by the UK Visa (UKVI) office in Victoria Island, in Lagos. This is even as the Doctors revealed that they were going to the UK for a better life and a better future.

Speaking to the Nigerian Tribune exclusively, a cross-section of the Doctors who wouldn’t want their names in print, for now, lambasted the NIS for stopping them despite showing the Immigration officials Visa waiver documents from the UK Visa office in Lagos.

According to the Doctors: “The UK Visa office in Victoria Island, Lagos gave us (58 Doctors) a Visa waiver because the standard processing procedure for Visa has been barred for a while due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Again, another reason why we were given visa waiver by the UK visa office in Lagos was because the CLS Centre where we do our visa processing application has not opened for a while now, also due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are all General Medical Council (GMC) registered Doctors and were all going to the UK for a better life and a better future. GMC is the equivalent of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN). Due to COVID-19, the law has been changed in the UK concerning travelling of key workers. Until July 31st, 2020, key workers can travel to the UK on visa waiver and then apply for visa at the point of entry into UK, that is on arrival at the UK. That is the new law in the UK.

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“We all had our names submitted to the UK Visa office in Victoria Island, but the omission was from the UK Visa office. They sent 42 names instead of 58 names. Those 42 Doctors were already even boarding at the Lagos airport before the NIS said they didn’t get any prior information from the Ministry of Health or the MDCN and asked everybody that had boarded to disembark.

“This is wrong from the NIS. We all used to travel on commercial flights to the UK prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s because of the ban in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic that made all of us to come together and decide to make the journey to the UK on a chartered flight.

‘We were initially going to the UK for training, but everything has been arranged for us over there to have a better life and a better future.

“We all had valid international passport and a visa waiver, so we don’t know why the NIS stopped us from embarking on our trip? It should be the UK’s headache to deny us visa entry on arrival at the UK, not Nigeria’s problem to deny us travel after showing the Lagos airport officials our visa waiver and valid passports.”

When reminded that the NIS said 42 Doctors and not 58 were listed to travel to the UK, the Doctors said the omission was from the UK Visa office in Lagos.

“Yes, the error was from the UK Visa office, and within an hour after they realised the mistake, they sent the correct 58 names of Doctors to the NIS, yet they won’t let us go. This is unfair and unjust to every one of us,” the Doctors lamented.

Recall that the NIS, in a statement on Friday said its officials refused departure of 58 Nigerian Doctors who attempted travelling aboard a UK bound aircraft flight number ENT 550, registration number SP-ES that flew in from London because 56 of the Doctors had no Visa for entry into the UK.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE