Government officials absent as Germany deports 29 Nigerians

Germany today (November 7, 2023) deported 29 Nigerians in commencement of its announced plan to deport about 14,000 citizens of the most populated nation in Africa.

The deportees comprised 28 males and a female, a source who saw the manifest said.

The deportees landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport this afternoon.

A report by InfoMigrant had said that Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu during a press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said he was open to accepting returnees.

In spite of the President’s promises, no government official was on ground to receive the deportees at the airport. Nigeria adopted the Global Compact for Migration in Rabat, Morocco but doesn’t work with it. Article 21 of the GCM talked about giving dignified return to migrants but Nigeria does the reverse.

Today, the embattled deportees were as usual abandoned to their own fate after they were driven out of the airport.

It is doubtful if the government agencies in the area of migration were aware of the exercise as none of them even mentioned it on their websites where only sponsored meetings and conferences are always celebrated.

The Nigerian government’s attitude to the deportation exercise today speaks volumes about how much the Nigerian government keeps to its promises.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Nigeria last week to hold discussions on various issues including migration and the economy.
A German public broadcaster ZDF, had hinted that under 14,000 Nigerian asylum seekers currently living in Germany are due to be returned. About 12,500 of them have ‘Duldung’ (tolerated) status because they have no identity papers.