- Laments 11-Month Detention By Turkish Govt
By Abiola Olawale
About a total of 103 Nigerians landed the shores of the country after being deported from Turkey over migration-related issues such as expired visa, irregular migration, among others reasons.
The 103 deported Nigerians were received by officials of the Federal Government at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the federal capital territory.
Speaking at the airport, Amb. Catherine Udida, the Director of Migration Affairs in the commission, who represented Alhaji Tijani Ahmed, the Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI) stated that the commission was expecting 110 deportees but received 103.
Udida disclosed that all 103 deported individuals from Nigeria are male.
She said: “Some of them have been in the deportation camp for some months, and now that they are here, we are hoping to follow up on all the allegations gathered in their profiling.
“We will go through the profiling foms because some of them have said that their passports were seized.
“We are going to follow up with the Turkish authority because the passports are still the property of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Addressing the press, one of the deportees, Mr Arinze Stone, accused the Turkish government of illegally arresting and detaining him in the camp for about six months.
Stone who narrated his ordeal said he had been living in Turkey for quite some years doing business.
He said: “They were arresting people whose papers are not yet out or just expired.”
He alleged that it was since the European Union started paying Turkey for illegal immigrants, that the government stopped issuing and renewing resident permits.
“Each day, the European Union pay 120 euros per head of immigrants in the Immigration Camp.
“Ever since I had been in Turkey, I always had my resident permit renewed. It just expired and the Turkish authority collected 700 euros from me for tax and insurance and then cancelled the renewal,” he explained.
Stone added that the deportation fee of about 2,500 Euros that was supposed to be given to each victim was not paid.
Another victim, Mr Moses Emeh, said he had a registered company in Turkey which had been functioning for more than eight years.
“I also have a resident permit, which was forcibly cancelled but I had earlier planned to convert it into a working permit.
” I don’t know where to start from. But I believe this is a diplomatic issue and I trust our foreign affairs minister, to follow it up.”
The development has been generating diverse opinions and perspectives from Nigerians across various social media platforms. Below are some of the reactions to the development:
“Don’t we have an ambassador over there in turkey?
He or she has failed woefully if no explanation is given for this.”(@mhteezer_Akin)
“Nigeria government should do better, this is an insult to Nigerians”(@sandra)
“The choose to stay for that long hoping Turkish government will later leave them , for the record they did not commit any crime some are resident permit issues some even paid for the permit and was denied, EU do pay all detainees some amount of money while deporting em”(@samtex88(
“This is deeply troubling and unacceptable. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their race or nationality. We need to stand against such injustices and demand accountability.”(@sheddy_memes)
