141 more Nigerian refugees return from Libya

On Thursday, october 24th, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) received another batch of 141 stranded Nigerian returnees from Libya.

The Coordinator, NEMA Lagos Territorial Office, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammed, received the returnees on behalf of the Federal Government at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

Muhammed told newsmen that the returnees arrived aboard a chartered Al Buraq Air plane with flight number UZ389/24 and registration 5A-DMG, at 4:32 p.m. He said their return was facilitated by the European Union and the International Organisation for Migration in a collaborative project that had seen some 15,000 stranded Nigerians being brought back since 2017 when the exercise started.

“At the end of the profiling of the returnees, there were 42 women, 19 female children and five female infants. Also brought back were 55 men, 14 male children and six male infants,” Muhammed said.

A returnee, Jubril Bukar, from Gwoza, Borno State, on arrival narrated his experience to newsmen. According to him, he left Nigeria in 2013 hoping to travel to Germany but couldn’t continue on sighting the Mediterranean Sea and decided to settle down in Libya. Bukar said he left Nigeria because of the Boko Haram menace that led to the killing of his parents in his presence.

“I had a wife and four children before I left Nigeria but now I have lost two children. My wife cannot be located. One of my children is said to be in Lokoja and another at Kaduna. It will take me time to locate them but I am sure of locating them.

“I have returned to Nigeria with nothing but I can say I am a professional, as I have learned plumbing works and other handwork. I beg Nigerians not to think of traveling to Libya. I thank President Muhammadu Buhari for helping me to come back to Nigeria,” he said.