The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), on Friday May 22 at about 12:40 PM, received 497 Nigerian migrants at the Malam Amini Kano International Airport, Kano, who had been repartriated from Niger Republic.
Dr Nura Abdullahi, Head of Operations, NEMA Kano Office, said the exercise was a voluntary repartriation, and not a forced evacuation. He said the operation was a tripartite arrangement involving the Nigerian Mission in Niger Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), to ensure the safe and dignified return of stranded Nigerians.
Abdullahi said the returnees comprised 174 males, 97 females, 137 boys and 89 girls from Kano, Jigawa, Borno, Kaduna among others.
According to Abdullahi, NEMA, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders caters for the returnees upon arrival. He said the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons provided drugs to the Nigerian Red Cross medical team for returnees with health challenges. He also said NEMA provided meals, and after physical verification and profiling, returnees would be transported back to their respective states.
While advising Nigerians to eschew travelling to seek for greener pastures in other countries, Abdullahi emphasized that, “no country is better than one’s country of origin.”
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