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| Immigration officials screening Nigerian returnee from Libya during their arrival at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Thursday. 02040/24/3/2017/Uwalaka Benedict/ICE/NAN |
The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, on Tuesday received another 257 Nigerian voluntary returnees flown back from Libya.
Hundreds of Nigerians stranded in Libya have returned to the country in 2017.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the latest returnees arrived at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, in a chartered Airbus A330-200 flight with Registration number 5A- LAT at 9.15pm.
They had been stranded in the course of their failed attempt to cross over to Europe through the volatile North African country.
The returnees were assisted back to Nigeria by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, while the Italian Government provided the aircraft.
They were handed over to the Zonal Coordinator of NEMA Southwest, Suleiman Yakubu, who received them on behalf of federal government.
The females among the returnees comprised 241 adults, two children and five infants while the male comprised four adults, four teenage boys and one infant.
Mr. Yakubu enjoined the returnees to embrace the change mantra of the federal government.
He urged them to remain positive and focused on contributing their quota to national development, instead of seeking greener pastures where it doesn’t exist.
Mr. Yakubu noted that they would not be treated as second class citizens in their own country, unlike what they face abroad after migrating illegally.
He disclosed that the European Union was providing the reintegration assistance, urging them to make use of the initiative and better their lives.
NAN reports that other agencies present when Yakubu received the returnees were the Nigerian Immigration Service, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Police.
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