The Federal Government on Saturday received no
fewer than 198 Nigerians illegally residing in
Saudi Arabia at the Malam Aminu Kano
International Airport at about 10 am.
This number was out of the 1,800 Nigerians living
illegally in Saudi Arabia, who were given amnesty
to return to the country.
The 198 persons including women and children
returned with their luggage on board a Med-View
aircraft.
Officials of the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) in Kano received the first batch of
the returnees.
Mohammed Yahaya-Sani, the Consular at the
Nigerian Consulate in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, who
led the illegal immigrants to Nigeria, told
newsmen at the airport that the Federal
Government sponsored their return.
According to him, the illegal migrants voluntarily
reported to the Nigerian Embassy to be returned
to Nigeria in compliance with the three months
evacuation notice issued to them by Saudi
authorities, which will expire on July 24.
Yahaya-Sani said that contrary to speculations,
the returnees were not deported rather they
voluntarily accepted the amnesty offer granted
them by the Saudi authorities for illegal
immigrants to leave the country.
“They decided on their own to return to Nigeria.
The Saudi authorities offered amnesty to all illegal
immigrants to leave the country within three
months,” he said.
The official handed over the returnees to NEMA
officials at the airport who witnessed and
documented their returns before they later
departed to their various towns and villages.
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