PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has urged the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to resume flights to Nigeria and lift the visa ban imposed on Nigerians.
Since July 2021, the UAE’s Ministry of Labour (MOL) had barred Nigerians from applying for work permits in the country. The UAE also placed visa restrictions on them after a criminal profiling.
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According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, the Nigerian leader made the appeal in a telephone conversation with the UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, while commiserating with him over the death of his mother-in-law, Maryam Al Falasi.
“The President requested his UAE counterpart to review the blanket visa ban imposed on Nigerians intending to travel to the UAE, recalling that mutually beneficial excellent relations have subsisted between the two nations over many years, symbolized by robust economic interactions and regular consultations on matters of common interest, including engagements at the highest political levels,” the statement said.
It added that Buhari noted that recent irritants in bilateral relations were generated by consular issues relating to the behaviour of some Nigerians in the UAE and had promised to apply necessary sanctions through appropriate judicial processes against anyone identified to have committed criminal acts in the UAE.
Flight operations by the Emirates Airlines to and from Nigeria had been suspended since October 29 2022, due to the airline’s inability to access its blocked funds in Nigeria.