Immigration Repatriates 612 Illegal Migrants From Akwa Ibom

The Akwa Ibom command of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) says it has repatriated 612 irregular African nationals to their countries of origin in the last five months.

The state Controller of Immigration Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Garba, said this in an interview in Uyo on Tuesday.

Abdullahi explained that the presence of the illegal migrants was a threat to the internal security of the state in particular and Nigeria in general.

He said that the affected migrants were mainly nationals from Niger, Cameroun, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea, Gambia and Togo.

“They were shown the way out for lack of valid travel documents and substantive means of livelihood,” Abdullahi said.

He said that those nationals from ECOWAS countries were repatriated through Seme border post while those from Niger Republic repatriated through Jibiya border post in Katsina State.

Abdullahi said illegal migrants from Cameroun were repatriated from Oron control post in Akwa Ibom.

“Akwa Ibom is more of a transit point, Akwa has the longest coastline in West Africa, the people come in through unmanned jetties,” the controller said.

He said that within the period, the command also generated N60 million as revenue through the issuance of passports, residence permits, alien cards and other operations.

Abdullahi said that the command admitted 1, 412 persons into the country and also assisted 1,664 emigrants out of the state between January and May 2014.

The controller said that a total of 2, 390 fresh e-passports were issued by his command while 858 applications for renewal were processed during the period under review.

He commended the state government for assisting the command in the repatriation of the illegal migrants and applauded the efforts of sister security agencies in facilitating the mop up exercise.

Abdullahi said that his major challenge in the command had been lack of patrol vehicles and boats as well as inadequate office accommodation.

dailytimes