Metro
Deportees stranded at airport, say they can’t trace their families
A number of Nigerians who were deported from the United Kingdom last week Wednesday are wailing their fate with some saying they cannot trace their families after leaving the country years ago in search of greener pastures.
Most of the deportees; eight females and 33 males, mostly Yoruba, Edo and Igbo, who were deported for alleged immigration offences and were received by Dr. Bandele Onimode, Deputy Director, Search and Rescue, who represented NEMA Director General are still stuck at the airport.
An aged deportee woman, who revealed that she left Nigeria some decades back, said she had lost touch with her relatives, including her children as she cannot locate them.
Read also: Pastor beaten, arrested after 5 human skulls, blood found in his church
Another deportee, a 37-year-old Yoruba man said he left Nigeria about 17 years ago and had lost touch with home saying he had to put resources together to travel to the UK but could not raise the money to process stay papers even after he began to engage in illegal activities until he ran out of luck.
An Igbo deportee, who said his parents were Lagos-based before he left for greener pastures, said he might not be able to trace the parents because he learnt they had relocated home.
Information reveals that a number of the deportees used fictitious names in their documentation as they were ashamed to reveal their identities because of stigma which also makes it hard to contact or locate any of their relatives.
RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears
Click here to download the Ripples Nigeria App for latest updates
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.