Posted by By UBONG UKPONG, Abuja on
The Federal Government (FG) says no fewer than 59,000 Nigerians are presently stranded and undergoing different painful experiences in various transit countries, while waiting for the opportunity to migrate to the West.
The Federal Government (FG) says no fewer than 59,000 Nigerians are presently stranded and undergoing different painful experiences in various transit countries, while waiting for the opportunity to migrate to the West.
Foreign Affairs Minister, Ojo Maduekwe, who made the disclosure yesterday, in Abuja, at the opening of a workshop on Information Campaign Against Irregular Migration, facilitated by the ministry, also described illegal migrants as parasites on their destination countries, adding that they would be treated as such.
He said reports from Nigerian missions abroad showing the figures from some of the countries indicated that, 'in Morocco there are about 8,000 Nigerian irregular migrants, 16,000 in Algeria, 20,000 in Libya and about 15,000 in Mauritania.'
Expressing worries over the figure, which he described as alarming, Maduekwe said, 'when you leave this country to go to other countries that were like Nigeria before a generation said they could rebuild their own country and they rebuilt, and you go to those countries, rather than staying here to put in your contribution, you are going out as a parasite and you will be treated as a parasite.'
Lamenting that irregular migration has tarnished the country's international image to an unbearable extent, the minister said this informed the decision to hold the workshop to strategies on ways to curb the menace.
Adding that it was also informed by the fact that so many Nigerians were presently serving various prison terms abroad over simple immigration and drug related offences, the minister advised that Nigerian people should reconsider their decisions to travel out of the country without securing proper documents, as the country would not compromise its sovereignty to beg for people who are being held for crimes.
'Citizens diplomacy does not include defending people who break the law. It does not include attempting traveling without the proper document. 'Yes, if you break the law, we will insist that the same rule that is applied to law breakers in their own countries should be applied to you and that includes the right of fair hearing,' the minister said.
Disclosing that some of the frustrations he had received in the ministry was the attempts to reduce him to the minister of visa affairs or a visa agent, Maduekwe said visa was not a right, advising that rather than exploiting every avenue to travel away from the country, it was expedient for all to join hands to build the country to make it a better place for all to live in.