FG warns Nigerians over irregular migration to Libya, says it attracts death penalty

*As 171 Nigerians return home

Another 171 Nigerians returned from Libya on Tuesday after months of been stranded in the Sub-Sahara African country.

They were received around 4p.m. at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos by the federal government’s delegation led by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa alongside officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), among others.

The new returnees comprised of 112 females and 59 males. The females included 109 adults, two children and one infant while the males comprised 49 adults, five children and five infants.

They voluntarily returned home with the assistance of International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Federal Government via a chartered aircraft.

It would be recalled that about 162 had voluntarily returned to Nigeria last week.

Some of the returnees wept uncontrollably as they arrived.

This is just as the Federal Government warned irregular migrants that are still in Libya to return home, saying irregular migration to the North African country attracts death.

One of the returnees, Gift Peter from Delta state could not hold back tears as she recounted her experience in Libya.

She said, “I travelled to Libya 11 months ago and I was deceived that I was going to Germany but when I got to Libya, the person that took me, I told him I didn’t want to continue with the journey. I asked him to take me back home but he started maltreating me and sold me to someone in Libya where they worked for 10 dinar everyday. If you don’t want to work, they would start maltreating you. They would do all sorts of things to you. They would use iron to burn you. They would tell the fellow girls to urinate for you to drink.”

Dabiri-Erewa who spoke with newsmen at the Hajj camp where the returnees were profiled also alerted Nigerians of human trafficking syndicates that specialize in luring young Nigerians to Europe.

She said the law establishing National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Person (NAPTIP) had to be invigorated to track these syndicates.

According to her, the returnees should not be stigmatized as they went in search of better lives before things turned awry.

Also speaking at the airport, NEMA’s Director of Search and Rescue, Air Commodore Salisu Mohammed said NEMA had taken responsibility for their rehabilitation with their families.

Also representatives of states like Edo and Delta, among others were on ground to receive their indigenes.