One hundred and sixty-two Nigerians, comprising 98 women, 28 men, 24 children and 12 infants who were stranded in Libya, have been repatriated back home, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said yesterday.
The returnees, who arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, were brought back from Tripoli, Libya, by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) through the Voluntary Repatriation Programme.
The Nation reports that the programme helps distressed or stranded migrants, who left their home countries in search of greener pastures in Europe but got stuck on the way, to return to their countries.
Since 2017, the IOM has assisted about 21,000 Nigerians stranded abroad to return home.
NEMA’s Acting Southwest Coordinator Ibrahim Farinloye said the returnees left Libya at 10:10 p.m on Tuesday and were received by the Nigerian government at 2:10 a.m.
The NEMA coordinator said five of the returnees were discovered to have different health-related issues after screening by Port Health officials.
He said: “The breakdown of the returnees that arrived today are: 98 adult females, 28 adult males, 19 female children, five male children, nine female infants and three male infants.
“Amongst the returnees were five who have various degrees of health-related issues.
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“Agencies on the ground that received the returnees are: Port Health Unit of the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Commission for Resilience, Migration and IDPs, and the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS).”
Also, about 600 Nigerians residing in Kuwait may be deported, if they fail to get their residential permit renewed anytime soon, The Nation has learnt.
The Nigerians, who will be affected, have been unable to renew their international passports due to the COVID-19 restrictions and the closure of airports.
These have reportedly made it difficult for their data to be captured.
Some of the affected persons, who spoke in confidence with our correspondents, explained that the Kuwait authorities do not accept any international passport that is less than one year to expire for the renewal of residency permits.
They expressed the fear of being deported, saying majority of them have expired passports while others have passports with less than a year to expire.
Reacting to this development, the Consular Officer at the Nigerian Embassy in Kuwait, Muhammed Abdullahi Ahmed, said the Embassy had been trying to help the affected