At least 500 Nigerians, who are among the thousands of Africans the United Kingdom is sending back to their home countries, have landed in Lagos.
The UK government loaded the Nigerians on a chartered flight from London on Tuesday night, a move anti-deportation activists tried to scuttle.
In an attempt to stop the chartered flight to Nigeria from leaving, a couple of these activists reportedly glued themselves to the gate of an immigration centre near London’s Heathrow airport.
The arrival of 500 Nigerian deportees at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Wednesday morning, is proof the activist’s move ‘failed.’
Some of the deportees are now stranded at spots around the airport as their family members, if they have any, are nowhere in sight.
Most of the deportees say they are not happy to come back, BBC Africa is reporting.
One of the deportees said he was arrested by British police and was not allowed to even take his belongings before being deported.
The UK had said it would deport 29,000 Nigerians. So the arrival of the first 500 could be considered a tip of the iceberg.
The Nigerians, alongside many others from Ghana and Sierra-Leone, were sent parking for lacking valid immigration papers.
The Nigerian government had urged the UK to follow due process before deporting any of the Africans.
Nigeria also told the UK to ensure it deported only Nigerians to Nigeria. The government said the deported Nigerians must also be certified fit to travel, and must be those who can play positive roles in the Nigerian society.
The hurried arrest and deportation of one of the ‘Nigerian’ deportees doesn’t sound like due process, some commentators have said.
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