As NEMA receives 168 voluntary returnees from Libya
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Friday that 15, 731 Nigerians have been brought home from 16 countries between April, 2017 and 2019 with Edo State topping the list.
The acting coordinator of NEMA, Lagos Territorial Office Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, disclosed this when he received a fresh batch of 168 stranded Nigerian returnees from Libya at the cargo wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos.
The returnees, who arrived at 5.42am aboard Al Buraq Airline, were assisted to leave the North African country by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) with the support of EU in a special intervention programme.
He said those so far returned from Libya alone in the last few years were 13, 884 made up of 8,096 males and 5,788 females.
Quoting the summary of the special EU-IOM and federal government intervention from 2017 to October, 2019, Farinloye stated that distressed migrants brought back per state of origin showed that Edo State topped the list with 40.6%; Delta 13.3%; Ogun 6.2%; Imo 4.7%; Lagos 4.3%; Oyo 4.1%; Yobe 3.6%; Kano 3.1% and Osun with 2.9% while the other states completed the rest.
He further revealed the following statistics of Nigerian returnees which a chunk returning from Libya: males 8, 096 and female 5, 788; Niger Republic, 1,043 males and 556 females; Morocco, 42 males and 37 females; Liberia, 8 males and 4 females; Burkina Faso, 6 males and 18 female; France, 3 males and 1 female.
He also said while one female was brought back from Ireland, countries like Poland, Austria, Gambia, Mauritania, Ethiopia had one male each assisted to return home; Chad, 1 male and 2 females and Cote d’Ivoire, 2 females.
In estimates, he said adult males formed 54 per cent; females, 37 per cent; male and female minors, 4 per cent apiece.
On the state of their conditions and experience those who suffered various degrees of torture were males, 31 and females, 21.
Unaccompanied minors that were assisted back were males, 66 and females were 67; those who were kidnapped from Nigeria and assisted to return home were 79 males and 31 females; single parent males, 41; single parent females 616; total number of pregnant women brought back, 439; those with various medical issues, males 592 and 804 females; returnees with psycho-social needs, males 523 and females 470.
