No fewer than four hundred Nigerians who were deported from the United Arab Emirates have arrived in Nigeria.
Officials from the Office of the National Security Adviser, in collaboration with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the National Emergency Management Agency, and other relevant stakeholders, received the deportees at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
“Four hundred Nigerians, including 90 females and 310 males, have been deported from the United Arab Emirates back to Nigeria.
“They were received at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, by the office of the National Security Adviser in collaboration with the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), and other stakeholders,” the news media said in a Wednesday post on X.
The diplomatic animosity between Nigeria and the UAE has been continuous, with the UAE putting a visa block on Nigerians nearly two years ago due to different diplomatic issues.
One notable incident involves Dubai’s Emirates Airline suspending flights to Nigeria after the Central Bank of Nigeria failed to remit an estimated $850 million in income to the UAE.
Following many rounds of negotiations with UAE authorities, the Nigerian government assured its nationals that the visa block will be lifted shortly.
Around the same time, Nigeria reported that it had paid 98% of the $850 million owed, indicating progress in resolving the dispute.
This deportation comes amid ongoing diplomatic difficulties between the two countries, which could be the result of a variety of hidden concerns. Despite this, rumours earlier this year suggested that both governments had struck a deal to relax travel restrictions on Nigerians.
In July 2024, the United Arab Emirates government declared that visa restrictions on Nigerians had been eliminated with immediate effect.
