The Nation Newspaper

Tag: immigrants

  • IMMIGRANTS: When the sea becomes a cemetery

    In the last one year not less than 1,000 Nigerian youths perished in the Mediterranean Sea; some were lost in the desert while numerous others were in various refugee camps in Libya in their quest for greener pasture. Sina Fadare, who encountered some of the returnees,’ writes that more is yet to be done to discourage this unprofitable journey

    ROSELINE  Omohodu could be described as a cat with nine lives. She has cheated death many times and was lucky to have, by the stroke of luck, escaped on each occasion the agent of death visited during her voyage on the Mediterranean Sea.

    She was about to get married to her heartthrob who was in the same vocation with her, cloth designing, in which they are cynosure of all eyes in the vicinity they are leaving in Ijaye area of Lagos State.

    After her training by one of the best fashion designers in Opebi area of Lagos State, Roseline teamed up with Kayode, her lover of four years, who actually introduced her to the job she later derived joy and sense of fulfilment.

    However a visit by one of her customers, simply called ‘Aunty Bimbo,’ who brought lucrative jobs for her, changed the course of her life. Bimbo, who claimed to have a boutique in Italy, was a big customer to her anytime she visited and within few months they became glued together.

    It was during one of her usual visits that the idea of going to Italy to become a notable fashion designer was sold to her and by the time she discussed with her would-be husband, who was sharing same shop with her, he was happy that at last opportunity has come their way to make it big outside the country.

    According to Roseline, Kayode did not think twice when he encouraged her that they should mop-up all they had, in terms of cash, to make the journey a successful one. “At the last moment, we were able to raise about N800, 000, which I gave aunty Bimbo to perfect all the travelling documents, excluding another N200, 000 which I changed to dollar on the eve of our departure from Nigeria.”

    It was a smooth journey from Nigeria to Libya where they were expected to cross the Mediterranean Sea through a big boat. This is where the sojourn to the world of unknown started for Roseline.

    After a lot of frustration and narrow escape from security officers, Bimbo eventually led her to the expected boat that would take her to the shore of Italy.  That was the last she saw her.

    “When I entered the boat, we were so plenty that l wondered if l had not willingly signed my death warrant. It was all a sea of heads because everything was dark and people just find a seat through the help of an agent with a touch light.”

    Roseline joined others and in the wee hour of the day the ship was in the middle of the sea to its destination. Suddenly there was commotion in the boat and heads were been knocked against each other in the full to capacity boat carrying about five hundred passengers. In the confusion that followed, she slipped to the ground.

    Roseline could not believe her imagination when faintly she was hearing a lot of noises and by the time she opened her eye, she was on a small hard bed at a refugee camp where she was carried to after their boat torpedoed on the sea. She was among the 10 survivors; others were drowned and became feast to the fishes on the high sea. Her survival at the sea gave her the second chance to tell her story.

    “For hours l did not know where l was, very weak and confused. I thought l was dreaming until a doctor came to give me an injection. That was when l realised l was not in a trance.”

    After three weeks at the refugee camp, Roseline and few others were sold by the Army officers who have captured a lot of immigrants on the sea to a woman who came to the camp often to buy people and resell them to farmers in the hinterland of Libya. There and then, Roseline’s second missionary journey into the unknown world commenced.

    “The experience l had on the cotton farm that l was sold to was better imagined than told.  I could not speak their language and none can speak English either; this compounded my problem. There was no dull moment. l could not bear the agony on the farm as a woman working for twelve hours a day with only little time to eat.

    “Suddenly my body could no longer cope and l fainted. That led me to another journey into what l will call the wilderness, which eventually paved way for my final exit from the trouble l put myself.”

    If Roseline was lucky, Hellen Efosa was not. She was lured to Libya with a promise of a better future where she was expected to work for a business woman who owned a big boutique, which later became a farce. She was lured to prostitution as she later knew when she got to Libya where she became a sex slave.

    “We are six in number sold from the refugee camp by the army. The woman who bought us also sold us to some guys who are like the yahoo boys in Nigeria. They are always smoking, drinking and had marathon sex with their victims

    “The house was like a big bungalow with a big garden, we were not allowed to come out. We only eat and subjected to marathon sex by any of the five boys in the house. When they are going out, they chained us to a big bed and a security officer was engaged to monitor our movement.

    “More annoying was that if any of us was on her period, her mouth was turned to depot of sperms in a brutal way.”

    Hellen lamented that as soon as any of them gives up due to stress from marathon sex, the body of such girls is dumped at a nearby dumping site at night and another replacement will come the following day through same source.

    “I was dumped like this one evening after l passed out due to marathon sex from five different men. A security officer who took me to the hospital said one of the scavengers on the refuse site reported the case to the police and it was in the hospital that l eventually regained consciousness.” she lamented

    Miss Chisom Johnson, who left Nigeria in 2014, was among the 120 Nigerians stranded in Libya who were brought home last November via Al Buraq air.

    She regretted her action of chasing the shadow outside the shores of the country, recalling that she was deceived that a job as a stylist was waiting for her in Germany

    According to her, “there are 20 of us in the team and we were promised that we would fly to Germany as stylists but after two weeks, we found ourselves in Niger Republic.

    She explained that after three weeks they were in Libya where their Madam told them that they cannot cross over but have to be prostitutes in order to refund her money which was N1.4 million.

    “I resorted to fervent prayers and pleaded with our Madam that it was a taboo in our family to prostitute because the consequence would be dire. She eventually agreed with me to work in a restaurant where l refunded her money

    “Immediately l finished paying her money, l started working on my own to get some money but my madam organised my kidnap and l was bailed by her with about N650, 000 and she doubled the amount and insisted that l must pay her N1.3 million which l did at last by doing all sorts of works.”

    Chisom, who was in tears, noted that his four years in search of greener pasture was a disaster and that she was lucky to have been returned home alive because others did not have the opportunity to tell their stories.

    “I want to beg those people who think that it was rosy over there to think twice; they should resist all temptations because they may not be lucky as we are. There is freedom in Nigeria; if you are hardworking; you can break through. Over there, there was no freedom and we cannot keep our money in the bank. This gave us out as prey to hoodlums who cashed in on our predicament to often rob us of our money with impunity.”

    The above tales of agony, frustration, slavery and death are the experience which Nigerian youths are passing through in their quest to go to Europe through illegal means.

    If the above victims were able to tell their stories, the 26 Nigerian girls that died in the Mediterranean Sea on November 3rd 2017 and thousands of others that were buried in hollow of the sea cannot.

    Speaking at the South City of Salerno, after a funeral was held for the victims, the Director UN Migration Agency IOM for Mediterranean, Federico Soda, pointed out that the 26 bodies were retrieved from the sea on Nov. 3rd by a Spanish rescue ship while 64 people were unaccounted for and feared lost.

    The Nation gathered that the Italian government has worked with the Libya authorities to block migrants from leaving the North Africans states, leading to the situation in which many perished in the sea and many refugees and migrants are trapped in  perilous conditions in Libya.

    According to IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre, at least 2,242 people died trying to cross the Mediterranean sea from Jan 1 to Dec.2018. These immigrants passed through Central, Eastern and Western Mediterranean route. In 2017, 2,853 deaths were recorded.

    In 2016 about 181,436 illegal migrants from 11 countries from Africa with Nigeria accounting for 37,551 stormed European countries. In 2017, with a total of about 11,9369 illegal migrants, 18,158 are Nigerians and in 2018, with about 23,370 illegal migrants, 1,250 are Nigerians.

    Two schools of thought have emerged on the reason behind the alarming rate of Nigerian youths risking their lives by going to Europe in search of greener pasture through the Mediterranean and the desert.  The first school of thoughts heaped the blame on the alarming rate of unemployment among Nigerian youths, particularly university graduates, who are trooping out of the school without any job to fall on as a means of their livelihood.

    The other argued that the porosity of Nigerian borders gives room for all shady deals, which include human trafficking and illegal migration through some of the neigbouring countries like Republic of Benin and Niger.

    Speaking to The Nation, a human right activist, Comrade Mark Adebayo, put the blame squarely at the door step of the federal government that has bluntly refused to put in place a mechanism that will give jobs for teeming Nigerian youths who are frustrated after many years of graduation from the university.

    Adebayo argued that aside this,  all the security agencies that are saddled with the responsibility to monitor the nation’s borders have failed to live up to expectation and this has encouraged all internal saboteurs who are feeding fat on human trafficking to have a free day.

    Adebayo therefore called on the federal government to urgently put in place mechanism that will give employment opportunity to all those that have been airlifted home noting that aggressive enlightenment campaign should be embarked upon to discourage those who are tricked into this illegal journey.

    Perhaps irked by the alarming rate of migration through illegal sea route, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) Nigeria, recently raised alarm that something urgent must be done to checkmate this ugly trend.

    Against this backdrop, in December 2018, IOM organised a training for government officials in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the availability of Migrant Resource Centre (MRC) to assist the intending travelers of the needed information

    The training was sponsored by the European Union (EU) within the framework of the “European Union Trust Fund and IOM initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in Nigeria.”

    Speaking at the occasion, Mr. Frantz Celestin, the IOM chief of Mission in Nigeria noted that it was expedient to organise the training at a time when the numbers of deaths and those suffering exploitation and abuse along the Central Mediterranean migration route are at an alarming rate.

    According to him, “It is worthy to note that thousands of Nigerian migrants are stranded in Libya, living in terrible conditions, with many desirous of the opportunity to return home.

    “From April 2017 to October 2018, over 10,000 Nigerian migrants stranded in Libya and Niger have been assisted by IOM to return to Nigeria.

    Celestin observed with dismay that many migrants have embarked on irregular migration with little or no accurate information about the legal migration process and the risks inherent in the journey.

    “Permit me to say that most of these migrants embarked on this perilous journey because they received little or no information about the legal migration process, the risks inherent in irregular migration, the living and working conditions, and the support and redress services available at destination countries.

    “In the absence of accurate information on legal migration procedures and requirements, risks of irregular migration, job advisories and general information and support on welfare and social protection, potential and returning migrants are bound to fall victim to fraudulent migration brokers/recruitment agencies, who usually capitalise on the vulnerabilities of their victims’ desire or ambition for exploitation.

    Celestin pointed out that the training was designed “To provide services for the empowerment and protection of migrants, staff of MRCs” as well as  build capacity of the participants on a wide range of issues, such as relevant laws and procedures relating to migration and migrants’ rights and responsibilities.” he said.

    However, equally worried, President Muhammadu Buhari explained that the situation on ground has called for concerted efforts from within and outside the country to curb the menace.

    The president, who disclosed this when he hosted Chairman of the African Union Commission, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat, at the Presidential Villa, noted that the Lake Chad, which provided a means of livelihood to several millions of people in four countries- Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria- has now been reduced to ten per cent of its original size due to the impact of climate change.

    Buhari explained that “People who depended on the lake for fishing, farming, animal husbandry and many others have been thrown into dire straits. That is one of the reasons youths now dare the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean sea, to seek greener pastures in Europe. But helping to recharge Lake Chad will help a great deal in curbing irregular migration.”

    The President lamented that the size of the country and resources available places a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders, adding that all hands are on deck to curb the menace.

    Speaking recently in Ibadan, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has challenged the youths to look inward for their livelihood instead of embarking on a perilous journey on the sea.

    Dabiri-Erewa, who said that the Federal Government has put in place many openings and opportunities for empowerment, said in spite of the hopeless situation being painted of the country, irregular migration damaged the national reputation

    According to her, the dangers and risks involved in illegal migration are more than the problems one can possibly face in Nigeria. “If you go to see them, there is no human being that will not cry; but in spite of the efforts, many Nigerians are still languishing in Libya cells.”

    She lamented that “One girl said she was 14 years old and about 40 people have slept with her; they used men as slaves, they used them on the farms.

    “There are still underground cells we could not reach then; so, up till now, we still have many Nigerians in Libya cells.”

    While the people have the liberty to move from one place to the other, Dabiri-Erewa appealed to Nigerians not to go near those countries like Libya, Oman, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, “but if you want to go, go legally.”

    According to her, illegal migration is not purely a Nigerian problem, but that of the continent, as thousands of Africans stake their lives as they venture on a boat journey in search of what they think will be a better and easier living standard. “Unfortunately, it is a journey that begins with hope but ends with despair.

    “It is painful that Nigeria ranks highest in the statistics of irregular migration; communities have lost able bodied youths, valuable assets and properties to irregular migration,” she said.

  • $22b Diaspora inflows trigger credit data exchange on immigrants

    Credit bureau operators in Nigeria, United States and Canada have agreed to share credit data of their citizens to boost over $22 billion Diaspora remittances flowing into Nigeria, The Nation has learnt.

    The strategic alliance will also give Nigerian immigrants easy access to loans in these countries before building a strong credit history, CRC Credit Bureau Limited chief Tunde Popoola told The Nation.

    CRC Credit Bureau, Credit Registry and XDS Credit Bureau are the three licensed operators in Nigeria. Popoola said without such data exchange, Nigerian immigrants wait for years before they can access credit in their new location, making it difficult for them to cope financially.

    The World Bank data showed that Nigerians living abroad (Diaspora) sent home $22 billion in 2017, the highest in the Sub-Saharan region, and the fifth highest in the world. This represents 10 per cent increase when compared to the $19.64 billion sent home in 2016. The data exchange partners have seen the rising financial influence of Nigerians in Diaspora and the need to quickly and fully incorporate them into their economies.

    Popoola said: “The data sharing scheme makes it easy for Nigerians that have relocated to United States and Canada to be fully integrated into the economies and begin to access credit. That means instead of waiting for years to begin to access loans, they can now easily pick up and continue their lives in their new place of residence.”

    The data integration scheme relies on high-level technology deployed by all the partners to make the process fast and seamless.

    Popoola said the Credit Reporting Act 2017, signed by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, provides a right to request and obtain, once a year, one free Credit Report from credit bureau, provided that a data subject shall be entitled to, at any time, request additional credit reports on him or her upon payment of any applicable fee.

    “The Act promotes responsibility in the credit market by encouraging responsible borrowing, avoidance of over-indebtedness and fulfillment of financial obligations by consumers and discouraging reckless credit granting by credit providers and contractual default consumers; and facilitate credit information sharing. A credit bureau is expected by law, to create and maintain a database of credit and credit-related information in accordance with provisions of this Act,” he said.

    According to him, credit bureaux are empowered by the Act to receive, collate and compile credit and credit-related information from Credit Information Providers, credit information users and such other persons the CBN may prescribe.

    “They are to issue credit reports, and provide other services that relate to permissible purposes, investigate at the request of credit information user, an application for credit on behalf of any person to whom an application for a credit based transaction has been made,” he stated.

    Popoola said since credit bureaux were licensed in 2009, his experience with customers has, on the whole, been positive. “We have been able to grow our customer base from being largely financial institutions to other sectors. We now have some insurance companies, telecommunication firms, real estate companies, leasing companies that have come onboard,” he said.

    He spoke of how the operators had many issues with the quality of credit data submitted to them, “but there has been an improvement, although there is still room for improvement”.

    The adoption of standardised common data submission template has helped. “Most Nigerian banks’ customers still do not know much about credit bureaux and how they are impacted by their existence. Some also do not know how to seek corrections to wrongs and disputed information submitted to the credit bureaux by creditors,” Popoola said.

    “Many do not know the rights conferred on them by the law on the limited permissible purposes for which their information could be used, and the protection of their data and robust provisions on how to address disputed information. A lot needs to be done in this area”.

    “Last year, the Credit Reporting Act, which lays down the legal framework for the operations of credit bureaux, was signed into law. The financial sector has embraced credit reporting and they are benefiting from it. Other credit grantors in the economy such as the telecommunication companies, distribution companies (Discos), utility companies, insurance companies, cooperative societies, and retailers have not fully embraced credit reporting. We will do a lot of engagements in this area,” he added.

     

  • Melania Trump calls for end to immigrants’ family separation

    Melania Trump, U.S. First Lady, has called on both Democrats and Republicans to join forces to stop federal authorities from separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border.

    In a statement issued by her office, the first lady expressed empathy for affected families, saying the country should be governed “with a heart”.
    “Mrs Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.

    “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with a heart,” the first lady said in the statement by her Spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham.

    Nearly 2,000 children were taken away from their parents in a six-week period ending in May under the new policy of President Donald Trump’s administration.

    The first lady’s statement echoed the president’s words on Friday saying: “I hate the children being taken away”.

    Trump, however, blamed the Democrats, adding: “The Democrats have to change their law – that’s their law”.

    Laura Bush, wife of former President George W. Bush, has also launched an outspoken attack on the policy in a statement in the Washington Post.

    The former first lady said: “This zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.

    “Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert.

    “These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War Two, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”

  • ‘Why Nigeria needs international database of immigrants’

    Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, has urged the Federal Government to set up an international database of immigrants to Nigeria.

    Atsenuwa said this would help to better identify and monitor immigrants’ activities in the light of the incessant killings of Nigerians, especially in central and northern Nigeria.

    She spoke at a workshop organised by the Immigration Lawyers Forum Nigeria (ILAFN) held at the Conference Hall of Human Support Services (HSS), Festac Town, Lagos last Thursday.

    In a paper titled, ‘Analysing current issues in global immigrations’, which was the theme of the workshop, the don attributed the country’s current security challenges to inadequate security measures at the nation’s borders.

    She observed that several reports had fingered illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries for some of the killings and called for more manpower, training and funding for security personnel.

    On the increasing cases of illegal migration repatriation and deportation of Nigerians, the lecturer said it was unfortunate that while some Nigerians are leaving in search of greener pastures because of the economic situation, other who migrated illegally are brought back in shame.

    She advised Nigerians not to force themselves out of the country illegally, but stay and tap from many business opportunities, rather than going to suffer unnecessarily in strange lands.

    Atsenuwa said: “I am not saying our people should not travel, they should follow due process, go through an immigration personnel and lawyers for proper counselling and guidance.

    “But then, there are so many opportunities in Nigeria. We are the people to make our country good and great unlike the Americans for example that collectively make their country good and great.

    “At this point, the Immigration Lawyers have to rise to this task of addressing the issues of human smuggling, trafficking in persons, strategies for eradicating illegal migration, labour exploitation, generating jurisprudence, developing programme/reports on immigration as well to provide knowledge and information to prospective migrants etc, and above all, create demand for quality service as Immigration Lawyers.”

    Atsenuwa commended members of Immigration Lawyers Forum Nigeria (ILAFN) for coming together to find ways to address pressing issues, understanding emerging trends in migration especially in Nigeria and opportunities available to Immigration Lawyers.

    She urged them to remain united and focused to achieve their vision and goals for the interest of all.

    ILAFN Chairman, Silas Udoh, while appreciating Atsenuwa and her UNILAG colleague from the Department of Public Law, Dr. Akin Akintayo, assured that the forum would not be distracted, rather would remain focused and committed to the purpose and vision it was formed.

    Udoh  called on the Federal Government to urgently address the issue of labour exploitation and abuse by foreign companies in Nigeria as well as create a productive and developed economy as measures to reduce mass migration of the citizenry.

    He assured that members of his group would do their best to maintain international best practices and standard in Immigration Law especially for the protection and guidance of migrants and Internally Displaced Persons in Nigeria. He called on the government to give necessary assistance and back-up for the group.

    Udoh also thanked members of his group, especially the visioner, Emeka Nsofor, who midwifed the project, for support and show of commitment, urging them to remain committed and supportive.

    Some of the members, who spoke with reporters- Ikechukwu Okeke, Mfon Mendie, Noel Brown, Naomi Uko, described the workshop as quite satisfactory and promised to work for more success of the group.

  • 35 Nigerians, Ghanaians, Senegalese immigrants feared drowned off Libya

    Thirty-five migrants, including seven children from Nigeria, Senegal, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, were feared drowned after their inflatable boat sank yesterday off the Libyan coast, the coastguard said.

    Eighty-five migrants, including 18 women, were rescued with the help of fishermen who alerted the coastguard.

    Navy spokesman Ayoub Kacem said the boat sank six nautical miles northwest of Garabulli, and 10 fishing boats took part in the rescue.

    One of the survivors, Nigerian hairdresser Vivian Effoussa described watching, horrified as fellow passengers fell into the sea.

    “The boat we entered was leaking,” said Effoussa, who attempted the crossing to Europe after struggling to support two children back home.

    “All of a sudden… the water was (coming) inside. Everybody started shouting,” she said.

    “Gradually we found ourselves inside the sea. Everybody, we’re falling inside, dragging each other. They even pulled my hair, dragging me.”

    “Really, I didn’t think the sea was big like this,” Effousa said, adding that, had she known, she would not have come.

    Human traffickers have exploited years of chaos in Libya since the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed dictator Moamer Kadhafi to boost their lucrative but deadly trade.

    Tens of thousands of migrants have resorted to paying smugglers to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to what they hope will be a better life in Europe.

  • US arrests hundreds of immigrants in ‘routine’ enforcement surge

    US arrests hundreds of immigrants in ‘routine’ enforcement surge

    •Trump mulls new travel ban
    •Warns Iranian president: ‘Be careful’

    The expected crackdown on illegal immigrants in the United States of America (USA) seems to have commenced after federal immigration agents arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants in at least four states last week.

    Officials called the operation routine enforcement actions.

    It coincided with reports that President Donald Trump is considering issuing a new executive order banning citizens of certain countries travelling to his country.

    The option is coming on the heels of his first attempt to clamp down on immigration and refugees.

    Trump announced the possibility of a “brand new order” that could be issued as soon as tomorrow or Tuesday, in a surprise talk with reporters aboard Air Force One at the weekend, as he and the Japanese premier headed to his estate in Florida for the weekend.

    His first executive order was ordered suspended by a court.

    The suspension order was upheld by an appeals court in San Francisco.

    Agency reports yesterday, quoting the director of enforcement and removal for the Los Angeles field office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement David Marin, showed that the immigration enforcement actions took place in Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

    Only five of 161 people arrested in Southern California would not have been enforcement priorities under the Obama administration, he said.

    The agency did not release a total number of detainees. The Atlanta office, which covers three states, arrested 200 people, Bryan Cox, a spokesman for the office, said. The 161 arrests in the Los Angeles area were made in a region that included seven highly populated counties, Marin said.

    Marin called the five-day operation an “enforcement surge.”

    He said that such actions were routine, pointing to one last summer in Los Angeles under former President Barack Obama.

    Trump gave no details of any new ban he is considering although it is thought he might rewrite the original order to explicitly exclude green card holders, or permanent residents, according to a congressional aide familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified.

    Whether or not Trump issues a new order, his administration may still pursue its case in the courts over the original order, which is still being reviewed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

    White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told reporters late on Friday that taking the case to the Supreme Court remained a possibility, after another White House official said earlier in the day the administration was not planning to escalate the dispute.

    “Every single court option is on the table, including an appeal of the Ninth Circuit decision on the TRO (temporary restraining order) to the Supreme Court, including fighting out this case on the merits,” Priebus said.

    “And, in addition to that, we’re pursuing executive orders right now that we expect to be enacted soon that will further protect Americans from terrorism.”

    Meanwhile Trump has warned Iran President, Hassan Rouhani to “better be careful”.

    Trump’s warning came after Rouhani was quoted as saying that anyone who speaks to Iranians with threats would regret it.

    He made the comments about Rouhani while flying on the presidential jet carrying him and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for a weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago retreat in Palm Beach, Florida.

    Trump issued the warning when he was asked in a brief appearance in the press cabin aboard Air Force One about Rouhani’s reported remarks to a rally in Tehran to celebrate the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

    “He better be careful,” Trump said.

    Rouhani was quoted in media reports as saying Iran had shown in the 38 years since the revolution that “it will make anyone who speaks to Iranians with the language of threats regret it.”

     

  • Immigration arrests 2,000 illegal immigrants in Oyo

    •131 children rescued from traffickers

    Over 2,000 illegal immigrants living in Oyo State have been arrested and deported by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) within the last two months.

    The state NIS Comptroller, Mrs. Victoria Isang, who disclosed this to reporters, added that 131 children were rescued from human traffickers in the last four months.

    Mrs. Isang spoke while addressing members of the Correspondents Chapel of the Oyo State Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Ibadan, the state capital.

    The NIS boss said the illegal immigrants were all nationals of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who either did not register their entry or renew their three-month ‘rights to stay’ in the country after its expiration.

    She said the arrest of illegal immigrants was largely made possible by the efforts of the border corps of the service, who were specially trained to mount surveillance on unregistered borders as well as men and officers combing various communities.

    Mrs. Isang said the Service does not delay in repatriating those arrested because of the security threat they constitute in Nigeria.

    On children trafficking, the immigration boss said  131 children were rescued from 144 suspected traffickers within the last four months. She said that 56 of the victims had been reunited with their Nigerian parents.

    The suspected traffickers, according to her, include 75 Nigerians and 69 non-Nigerians.

  • 300 illegal immigrants repatriated in Niger

    300 illegal immigrants repatriated in Niger

    The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Niger State yesterday repatriated 300 illegal immigrants arrested in its mop up exercise.

    It had arrested 500 illegal immigrants. Three hundred were screened and found out to be non-Nigerians, while 200 are undergoing intensive screening to ascertain if they are illegal or not.

    Briefing reporters in Minna, the Comptroller of Immigration, David Adi, said most of the illegal aliens migrated from Niger Republic, adding that they were arrested in Chachanga, Bosso, Paikoro, Suleja, Kontagora and Bida local governments.

    He said Nigeria should no longer tolerate what other African countries would not tolerate.

    “What these countries cannot tolerate, we should not tolerate. No Nigerian can go to these countries and work there without travel document. So we will not allow it in this country. If they have their travel documents, they are free to come and stay.”

    Adi said illegal immigrants posed a threat to security in the state and the country at large.

    Said he: “If security is compromised, there is no way we can get them. We want to get rid of them. Let them go to their country and get proper travel documents. When they are properly documented, they will be traceable.”

    The Immigration boss said intensive screening would be carried out on those who claimed to be Nigerians, adding that they will be released if they are Nigerians, while those who are not Nigerians will be repatriated.

  • Immigrants and Europe’s hypocrisy

    Overwhelmed by unprecedented number of immigrants from Syria Afghanistan,  Eritrea, Darfur, Iraq, Somalia and Nigeria, fleeing dictatorship, religious extremism and poverty, Europe, the wealthiest continent which made her fortunes through the sweat and blood of others across borders is now fighting to protect its own borders. Europe seems to have suddenly forgotten, the world was told sovereignty was dead a long time ago, that it is perfectly normal for the political and economic policies of new colonial states to be controlled offshore by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and World trade Organisation (WTO) and that the world has become a globalised stage where globalization their new god ‘guarantees free trade, (albeit of unequal partners) mobility of capital, technology, information and people. And now, all immigrants asylum seekers ask of European leader is that, in tandem with the tenets of the new god, they are allowed into Europe to sell their labour in a world we are told is borderless.

    Unfortunately, unable to face up with their demons, European leaders have suddenly become incoherent. With the exception of German Chancellor, Angela Merkel who recently warned that “if Europe fails in the question of refugees, its close connection  with universal civil rights will be destroyed”, others have been busy building border wall, barbed -wire fences, and dispersing migrants with tear-gas in total disregard of what globalization preaches. The authoritative Financial Times of London, an advocate of a borderless globalised world announced with undisguised regret the collapse of European borders. Britain, the greatest imperial power of our age which sadly falls behind all European countries including impoverished Greece in her response to the immigrant crisis, finding no more excuses for her ambivalence now says her problem is with African economic migrants, who according to Philip Hammond, the British foreign Secretary are “marauders who would soon hasten the collapse of European civilization”. She forgets European civilization is a product of the exploiter, the exploited, Africans, Asians, and Judaism, Ifa, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. If Cameron and Hammond are in doubt, they should consult Prince Charles who in a recent interview admitted Islam contributed immensely to the European civilization.

    The past also seems to have been lost on European leaders. They forget their forebears outwitted the rest of the world preaching Christian virtues of ‘being our brothers keepers’ through Roman Catholic and protestant priests. Of close to a million asylum seekers in 2014, Europe accepted only 626,000. And with all the antics, the United Nations projection for Europe, the richest continent in 2016 is one million migrants. With the scale of human tragedy we daily witness on television, Amnesty International’s condemnation of European governments for “negligence towards the humanitarian crisis in the Mediterranean” and its warning that EU must not “turn its back on its responsibilities”, European leaders have continued to look for justification to preserve the fortunes immorally appropriated for themselves and their children.

    European fortune seekers hardly trade in morality. ‘What heart could be so hard, as not to be pierced by piteous feeling to see the other company?’ wrote Zurara, in ‘Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea’, during the slave raids of 15th century. But I think we can at least remind the prosperous western nations, their right wing parties  and some of their over-pampered children, described as ‘a disgrace to humanity’ by the German iron lady, of the source of ill-acquired wealth of Europe whose leaders in character today remain indifferent as 2,500 lives including the 1,200 deaths recorded from the boats which sank in the Mediterranean, the 71 migrants found dead in an unventilated food truck near Vienna on August 27, and the hundreds of  women and children drowned while making desperate efforts for new life in Europe.  Anti-immigrant Europeans hardly know that the wars and misery currently forcing people to flee European-created nation states of  Nigeria, Sudan, Kosovo, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and  Bangladesh are direct consequences of colonization and Europe’s self-serving policies in these ex-colonies.

    But how did we get to where we are? Basil Davidson has shown in some of his works that most parts of the world were at the same level of development until Europeans, forced out of their hostile environment where life was the survival of the fittest, in ‘Search for gold, God and Glory’ struck fortune through the exploitation of the wealth of other nations. Walter Rodney, killed by a bomb in his car at 38 has shown in his 1972 classic ‘How Europe underdeveloped Africa”, by building fortunes on the misfortunes of other nations.

    Before 1300 AD, it was almost inconceivable that Europe could conquer the world. But taking advantage of their discovery of gunpowder, military weapon and improvement on shipping, they effortlessly enslaved most parts of the world including Africa from where Europe between 1492 and 1870, shipped 10 million blacks to their plantations in America. Slavery which was the source of Europe’s wealth was later replaced with colonial rule, an ideology which presupposes ‘a superior, civilized and smarter group ruling a devious, lazy and immoral tribes’, with the help of Roman Catholic and protestant priests and Islamic clerics.  At the Berlin Conference of 1884, driven by economic and military interests, they divided Africa among European member states, by drawing ‘borders without consideration for pre-colonial ancient tribal boundaries and social history’, merging different cultural groups at different levels of cultural development. Spain took over the Philippines and Cuba; France: Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia while Britain took over most part of Asia, Burma, India, and Africa. Just as it was in slavery, the colonised new states produced cash crops and mined minerals as raw materials for European industries. Europeans determine the price to be paid for labour as well as the price the laborers paid for Europe’s processed goods.

    Following agitation for independence, they forced different groups at different levels of cultural development together even after admitting it was their presence alone that had ‘prevented a disastrous descent into turmoil of warring sects’. Nigeria with about 16,000 communities and about 350 distinct language groups shares similar fate with other colonized nations. Congo, the most endowed nation on earth in terms of mineral resources after centuries of Belgian rule had at independence about five university graduates and about 600 Roman Catholic priests. Patrick Lumumba, Congo’s independent Prime Minister who was later murdered in the presence of Belgian soldiers over Katanga mineral deposits had only four years of formal education. Mobutu through whom Europe pillaged the resources of Congo or Zaire for over 30 years was a cook in the Congo army. Today Congo remains one of the poorest nations of the world. European over pampered children must be told the prosperity of Belgium and the rest of Europe was piled up at the expense of those they now claim are coming to ‘destroy their civilization’

    Then Europe and its allies in America decreed globalization is the new god we must all worship. Globalisation, we now know is another name for slavery. It has continued to increase the gap between the rich and the poor nations. What an average Ethiopian ‘earns in a year is what an average Swiss citizen earns every 24 hours’. A pastoral cattle farmer in Europe gets a government subsidy of $2 per head of cow while about 1.5billion people in the rest of the world live below $1 a day. By the logic of globalization, Europe’s unjust god, the life of a cow in Europe is worth two human lives in the impoverished and pillaged third world nations.

    Now children of impoverished nations are opting to worship the same god in Europe and America, risking their lives through precarious voyage through the desert and seas, guaranteed with nothing beyond clearing sewages and working in old peoples’ homes.

    What crimes, if one may ask the European leaders, have immigrants, worshippers of Europe’s unjust god committed by opting to sell their labour in a world we are told is borderless? Europe sows the wind. Europe must reap the whirlwind.

  • 247 illegal immigrants held

    247 illegal immigrants held

    THE Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) in Adamawa State has arrested more than 247 illegal immigrants from neighbouring countries in what it called ‘Operation Flush’.

    It was aimed at flushing out illegal and troublesome migrants.

    The Comptroller, Mr. Ubi Ikpi Nkanu, in an interview, said the operation was to fish out those who entered the country illegally and were hiding in border towns and villages.

    He said the NIS entered into a working relationship with sister security agencies, such as the Army, the Police, the Department of State Security, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigeria Customs Service to embark on the operation.

    Nkanu said: “The essence of the operation is to rid Adamawa of undesirable elements, who are fomenting trouble. Those without relevant papers were made to update them if they had expired. Those deported were those who didn’t have any document and had exceeded the ECOWAS requirement of three months.

    “If they sneak into the country, the Comptroller-General, David Paradang, has introduced a programme called ‘Border Corps’, which enables us to keep tabs on illegal immigrants.”

    He urged the people to monitor foreigners.