The federal government has announced that it will evacuate two hundred and fifty of its citizens from Libya on Tuesday, this week, noting that 3,000 citizens had been brought back so far.
The Charge d’Affairs, Nigerian mission in Libya, Mr. Iliya Fachano said this while addressing some protesters, members of the Ourmumudondo coalition, which staged a protest at the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign in Abuja, demanding an end to slavery in the Arab nation.
Mr. Fachano said the returnees are expected to arrive Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos by 7pm on Tuesday.
He disclosed that embassy officials visit the detention camps weekly where illegal migrants mostly from African countries were held.
Mr. Fachano added that those identified as Nigerians were given emergency travel certificates to enable them to return to Nigeria on chartered aircraft financed by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM.
According to Mr. Fachano, “the IOM informs the mission once Nigerians are identified among the illegal migrants, we then visit the detention camps, register them and give them emergency travel certificate, then schedule a date for their return.
“The mission repatriates immigrant Nigerians weekly, today being December 5, 2017, 250 Nigerian migrants will arrive Lagos by 7pm.”
The diplomat said the exercise is carried out regularly, adding that after immigrants are scheduled for a flight, their names contained in a manifest is sent to Nigeria.
“They are not only Nigerians there, there are other nationalities like Ghanaian, Gambians; so the Nigerian embassy visits that place to identify its own people, Mr Fachano explained.”
“So far we have registered about 2,000 Nigerians now, the 250 will return tomorrow because no plane has the capacity to take all the detained at once. And all the detained people are not only Nigerians.”
