UK deports 40 Nigerians over immigration offences

For the second time in a month, the United Kingdom and Australia, on Wednesday, jointly deported about 40 Nigerians for various immigration offences.

The deportees comprising male and female arrived at the hajj camp area of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, in Lagos, at 7:25am on chartered aircraft.

It was gathered that chartered aircraft with the registration number ZTA -4741 repatriated into the country 36 Nigerians comprising 29 males and seven females.

Also, Air Seychelles with the registration number SND-1 brought four males into the country for similar immigration offences.

Apart from Nigerians deported by the two countries, some citizens of other African countries especially from Ghana, Liberia and Egypt, were equally deported.

The returnees were received by various agencies such as Immigration that checked their identities to ascertain their nationalities, Police, National Agency for Protection and Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, and other relevant stakeholders.

A source close to the terminal, but who preferred anonymity, told our correspondents that some of the deportees were violent when officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) attached to the international wing of the airport attempted to collect their fingerprints for data purpose.

The source maintained that others who did not kick against the fingerprinting were swiftly attended to by the officers and were allowed to leave the airport after the completion of their documentations.

Some of them waited for any available means to get out of the airport without attracting much attention to themselves while others talked in trickles.

The deportees it was gathered were returned from their host countries for overstaying their visas and other immigration offences.

Public Relations Officer, NIS, Mr. Ekpedeme King confirmed the deportation with our correspondent on phone, but could not give much details.

He said that the service was still awaiting more information from its Lagos office as at the time of filing in this report.

Sometime in April, 48 Nigerians were jointly deported by UK and Switzerland Governments for several residing in their countries illegally.