At last, the Federal government of Nigeria has commenced the plans to repatriate over 1,000 Nigerians from South Africa following the persistent rising of anti-immigrant sentiments and renewed xenophobic tensions in the southern African nation.
Nigeria’s Foreign ministry spokesperson Kimiebi Ebienfa in an interview with AFP on Friday said that screening for a voluntary repatriation programme began on Thursday.
While pointing out that the final number of those seeking to return home had not yet been determined, the spokes person noted that the figure was expected to exceed 1,000.
“Total figure not out yet,” he said. “We are expecting over 1,000 persons.”
Earlier in a statement on Tuesday, Nigeria’s High Commission in Pretoria made public that it had negotiated waivers with host authorities to enable those with immigration-related offences to be allowed to leave on the eventual repatriation flights rather than be detained.
Recall, following an ultimatum by one citizen-led group for illegal migrants to be expelled by June 30, fears of violence has raised compelling Ghana to repatriate some 300 people, the first batch of what authorities said was expected to be a total of about 800 Ghanaian nationals.
