More Nigerians return from Libya

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday received another batch of 152 Nigerians who returned from Libya.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees arrived at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 9.05pm.

They returned aboard a chartered Airbus 320 with registration number LZ-MDO operated by VIA Airways.

The returnees comprised 69 adult females — including three pregnant ones — 73 adult males, four children and six infants.

South West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, received the returnees on behalf of the Federal Government.

Yakubu thanked the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) for facilitating the repatriation of the Nigerians from the volatile North African country where they had been stranded enroute Europe.

He said NEMA had so far received 457 returnees from Libya through the humanitarian assistance of IOM and EU in 2018.

According to him, NEMA received a total of 6, 804 Nigerians in 2017 and they went through rehabilitation and reintegration programmes across the country.

NAN reports that the fresh returnees were also received by officials of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) , the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) , Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Police.

Telecommunications company, Airtel, in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, also gave the returnees free mobile handsets and SIM cards to facilitate their reintegration.