THE Federal Government (FG) has received about 103 Nigerians deported from Turkey on the grounds of migration-related problems, such as irregular migration and expired visas, among other issues.
The Federal Commissioner of the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), Tijani Ahmed revealed this during the deportees’ profiling in Abuja on Friday, June 28.
Ahmed who the Director of Migration Affairs represented in the commission, Catherine Udida, said the commission expected 110 deportees but received 103, all males.
The commissioner said some of the deportees had been in the deportation camp for some months.
He said the commission hoped to follow up on all the allegations compiled in their profiling.
“We will go through the profiling forms because some of them have said that their passports were seized.
“We are going to follow up with the Turkish authority because the passports are still the property of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he stated.
“We equally have a programme where we train them and thereafter reintegrate them into society,” he stated.
He maintained that regardless of a returnee’s status, the NCFRMI is the mandate agency in charge of them all.
Similarly, Bashir Garga, the North-Central Zonal Coordinator, of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) gave the returnees assurances that all pertinent government departments would work together to support them.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), one of the victims, Arinze Stone, claimed that he was imprisoned in the camp for around half a year after being apprehended by Turkish officials.
Stone claimed to have been involved in business in Turkey for several years.
He noted that the Turkish government has ceased issuing and renewing residency cards since the European Union began paying them for illegal immigration.
He also said that none of the approximately 2,500 euros in deportation fees that were due to be delivered to each victim had been paid.
Another victim, Moses Emeh, claimed to have a Turkish company that was officially established and had been in operation for more than eight years.
Emeh urged the federal government to organise a sensitisation programme for Nigerians still living in Turkey because according to him, the Turkish government is not sincere.
He described how he spent eleven months and three weeks in a dungeon after being imprisoned.
NAN reports that the returnees received stipends, beginning packs, and dignity kits to help them get to their destinations.
In 2023, a wave of deportations from numerous European nations included the deportation of 170 Nigerians in nine months from Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, and other countries.
According to Punch newspaper, the reports and data used in the compilation came from the websites of the national migration organisations in each country.
The newspaper said the data was representative of a broader picture of the policies and migratory trends implemented across European borders.
A reporter with the ICIR
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