Some Nigerians in Libya not willing to return home – Official

The Charge d’Affaires of Nigeria in Libya, Illiya Fachano, says some Nigerians in Libya have refused to be repatriated inspite of the “unfavourable situations” .

Mr. Fachano told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday: “not all of them want to come back home”.

“Before you can assist them, they will have to sign a consent form, after which emergency travel certificates are issued.

“I want the public to know that we have some Nigerians who are not willing to return inspite of the unfavourable situations and the fact is that we can’t get them on the flight without their consent”.

“Migration is natural and has always happened but becomes an issue when there are people migrating illegally meaning the migrants arrive without proper documentations and conceal their identity.

“What we do is identify the Nigerians in the camps, register them then issue them an emergency travel certificate but those who happen to be sick get medical treatments before being confirmed to fly.

“The Internationl Organisation for Migration (IOM) has rallied support of the European nations and particularly Italy for the Libyan Coast Guards who are particularly ordered to prevent boats that smuggle migrants and refugees from Libya to Europe.

“The fact that the coast guards at the Mediterranean Sea are professionally trained and well funded by the EU, they have captured many people who are trying to illegally cross to Europe and returned them to Libya.

“Unfortunately, we have noticed that in every batch of people brought back to Libya from Europe or the Mediterranean Sea, a larger number of the migrants come from Nigeria because of our population,’’ he said.

Mr. Fachano added that there were challenges in extracting Nigerians from Libya which required the assistance of the government.

“I can confirm that the stories of Africans being bought as slaves in general is true, however, we discovered other people who were bought and sold by their fellow Nigerians living in Europe,” he said.

The charge d’affaires said it is worrisome that with all the efforts of the government to rescue stranded migrants, more Nigerians are still trying to go to these places hoping that they will be lucky in achieving their European dream.

The Federal Government said, Wednesday, that it has so far identified 2,778 Nigerians trapped in the Libyan detention camps.

Of this figure, the government said 250 were repatriated on Dec. 5.

So far the government said 3,250 have so far returned from the Libyan enclave.

The government said it would continue to engage the legitimate government in Libya to address the plight of Nigerian migrants in that country.

(NAN)