Amidst deafening global outcry over the Libyan slavery narrative, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed that over 6,672 Nigerians have voluntarily returned from the troubled North African country between January 6 and December 28, 2017.
The Agency however is yet to release a full breakdown of the figure in terms of the returnees’ gender and states of origin.
NEMA’s Director General, Alhaji Mustapha Maihajja gave the figure when the Agency received a fresh batch of 257 Nigerians who arrived Lagos from Libya on Thursday, December 28, 2017.
He said the Federal Government was doing everything possible to evacuate all Nigerians that are willing to return home from the crises-ridden Maghreb nation.
The 257 new arrivals came aboard an Afriqiyah Airbus A330-300 with Registration number 5A-OMR and were picked up at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 6.05 pm.
On the list were 152 adult females, 82 adult males, nine children and 14 infants, with one medical case. NAN reports that the returnees arrived barely 24 hours after another batch of 157 Nigerians landed in the country from Libya where they had been stranded en-route Europe.
Represented by the Southwest Coordinator of NEMA, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, the Director General charged the returnees to support various agencies of government agencies in the war against human trafficking in the country.
Maihajja said government would need their assistance in identifying the traffickers who repeatedly lure and deceive many young Nigerians to embark on the perilous journey with the promise of taking them to Europe.
The NEMA Chief promised that all information volunteered by the victims would be treated by government with utmost confidentiality and secrecy required.
He also allayed their fears of so-called ‘spiritual consequences for exposing these evil persons’, stressing that they had a duty to educate the public on what they went through in the volatile North African country.
Alhaji Maihajja commended the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for their efforts at stepping up the repatriation exercise, notwithstanding the festive season.
