As the United States government is set deport 3,690 Nigerians who are considered to be residing in the country illegally, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) said the federal government was ready to receive the deportees.
The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it identified 3,690 Nigerians among the 1.4 million “illegal migrants” with deportation orders.
A document obtained by Fox News from ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) showed that the immigrants have been on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders of removal since 24 November 2024.
The non-detained docket includes people who have been ordered to leave the US or are in the process of being deported but are not being held by ICE.
With 3,690 individuals, Nigeria has the second-highest number of citizens slated for deportation in Africa, following Somalia, which has 4,090. Ghana has the third highest number.
Speaking on the fate of the returnees, the spokesman for NiDCOM, Mr Abdur-Rahman Balogun said in an interview with Vanguard that that the ministry of foreign affairs was in charge of such development.
He disclosed that the government had already set up an inter-agency committee to handle the matter should Nigerians be deported from the US.
“The federal government has set up an inter-agency committee, comprising the ministry of foreign affairs, NiDCOM, ministry of humanitarian affairs and office of the national security adviser (NSA), should there be mass deportation of Nigerians from the US,” he said.
However, he said the commission was not aware of Nigerians in America being processed for deportation.
