NIS deports 120 immigrants from Edo A FEW weeks after the Edo State government urged residents to ensure that all persons employed as security guards were registered immigrants with valid documents, the state command of the Nigerian Immigrations Service (NIS) yesterday paraded 120 illegal immigrants from Niger, Chad, Mali, Ghana and Guinea, who were picked up from across the 18 local councils of the state. Speaking with journalists at the state NIS Headquarters yesterday shortly before they were taken to Sokoto, Abuja and Cross River states, the state Controller, David Akwor, said over 450 of them were arrested but that after screening, 120 were found without valid travel and residence papers and were, therefore, deported to their home countries. According to him, “in recent past, foreigners have been arrested in connection with crimes in the state. So, with the assistance of the governor, beginning from Tuesday, we decided to raid and mop up illegal immigrants, and in the course of that, we arrested 450 persons but discovered that some were Nigerians while some of the immigrants had legal documents, leaving us with about 120 illegal immigrants.” However, on concerns that some of them might have capitalised on the ECOWAS Protocol on free movement to stay in the country, Akwor said the protocol equally provided that they must possess valid travel documents and as well come in through authorised routes where they would have immigration clearance. Such routes, he said, include the airports, the land frontiers and the seaports, where their passports would be stamped with the duration of initial stay, subject to extension after satisfactory reasons. He noted: “Some of them present national identity cards and of course, these are not travel documents, they are just to identify you as citizens of your country. “We have from Mali and two Chadians, and because they don’t have valid documents, we had to send them back to their countries. A lot of them have been arrested following the Boko Haram group, so we want to make our country free of criminals.” The deportees, however, excluded those from Mali, who he said, would be sent to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Abuja because of the crisis in their country, to assess and probably grant them refugee status. While assuring that the combing exercise would continue, Akwor urged residents to properly screen the persons they engage as security men in their houses.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 01:34:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015