FG assures investigation of alleged maltreatment of Nigerians in diaspora
By Nneka Nwogwugwu
The federal government has promised to investigate alleged maltreatment of Nigerians in Diaspora.
The Director of Consular and Legal Department, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bolaji Akinremi said this on Wednesday when he received a fresh batch of 418 Nigerians from Saudi Arabia in Abuja.
Speaking to newsmen, Akinremi, while responding to the complains made by the returnees, said, “We are going to investigate because I am the one in charge of consular and legal and I’m telling you that what you have said here will not go uninvestigated.
“I will meet with those who have made this complains and I will ensure that they tell us the specific mission.”
He also urged that the returnees should provide names of foreign service officers who are also involved in the poor treatment of Nigerians in diaspora.
He added, “But I want to tell you that all our foreign service officers are well trained and cultured. Now many at times, people see people in Nation and think they are foreign service officers. Some of them are locally recruited staff and sometimes you don’t know their nature.
“So, I can’t say that what they are alleging is not correct but i’m appealing that they bring it up formally and we will look into it.
“Our officers are trained to take care of Nigerians, that’s why we are posted there, we are paying from the taxes that Nigerians pay and our duty is to take care of their welfare.
“When people alleged that our officers do not care, possibly the person is traumatized because they may not understand the Officers schedules. They may be a little delay from the officers probably because they are occupied with other things.”
Daily Times reports that the returnees are expected to camp at the Hajj camp in Bassa, Abuja in order to observe COVID-19 protocols.
While receiving the returnees, the Director said the exercise was made possible through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, to create a smooth rehabilitation process for the returnees.
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He commended all other agencies like NAPTIP, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), NIMC, FCT Pilgrims Board, and Public Health for their coordination alongside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He said, “This is not the first time that Foreign Affairs Ministry is receiving returnees as the case may be but this one is significant because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What we are doing here is to see the team of federal government that is taking care of all of them.
“The first batch came on Monday and they were 255, on Tuesday, we had the second batch and they are 398 and today the fourth batch are 418.
“ They will be staying in this facility for a period of time. There are little changes in the protocol we were observing before and we are doing rapid testing now.
“The first set that came in January, stayed for eight days minimum but now they will be here for three days.
“They will arrive on the first day while on the second day, they will do the capturing and testing, then on the third day, they will get their test and will be ready to leave the camp.
“We are not only giving them accommodation, we are also making provision for a new life where the federal government will provide 20,000 stipend per persons from 10 years old and above.
“We are paying this stipend to transport them and give them something to start business.”
He also explained that within a period of two weeks, the federal government has received over 3,000 Nigerians.
He said, “The focus is not just on Saudi Arabia, we have received 170 returnees from Libya that came in two batches two weeks ago.
“We have also received from Germany and we are expecting from south Africa.We are expecting more from Libya or Saudi Arabia.
Akinremi assured that government is doing everything to ensure that every Nigerian who is in crisis outside the shores of Nigeria deserve to be rescued.
The director who also explained the reason for having more batches after January’s batch, said, “indeed we said that in January, that was the last batch for that season.
“The first set that we received from January 29-Feb 6 were 7 flights altogether and we received the last flight, we announced that it was the last.
“As at that time we had over 11, 000 Nigerians that were able to be evacuated from Saudi and that these Nigerians have been kept in deportation camps. A lot of them were domestic workers and their visias expired and a lot of them were stranded because of COVID-19 1 and we had to evacuate them.
The Director General of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP) Imaan Sulaiman – Ibrahim said the Agency is equally profiling all the returnees and counselling them as part of the rehabilitation process.
She said, “In January 2021, we were able to profile 1,250 Nigerians that returned from Saudi Arabia, in March from Libya we profiled 117. This helps Development to be able to plan towards interventions and rehabilitations for the evacuees”.
She said the returnees are a mixture of people who were trafficked and also willing participants who went for greener pastures, adding that some of them were born in Saudi Arabia from Nigerian parents.
Speaking on some non-Nigerians among the returnees, she said, “Some of them were born in Saudi Arabia but from Nigerian parents but from the profiling, the number of non-Nigerians is negligible. During our profiling in January, out of almost 1,250 people, only five (5) people were not Nigerians and they are from ECOWAS countries and we will make the right kind of arrangements to get them back home.”
