The Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora Matters, Hon. Barr. Rita Orji has said that no fewer than 32,000 Nigerians who illegally migrated to Germany are seeking asylum status in the country.
Orji who disclosed this while delivering a speech at the launch of Migration Enlightenment Project in Nigeria (MEPN) organized by the African-German Information Centre (AGIC) in conjunction with the Africa Courier Magazine with support from the Federal Foreign Office, Germany also said that 12,000 Nigerians were waiting deportation from Germany.
According to Orji,”Over the past years, traversing international borders illegally has become increasingly dangerous because the would be immigrants face kidnapping, murder, rape at the hands of terrorists who are into selling human organs, crossing volatile deserts and troublesome sea exposing the travelers to exploitation, dehydration and drowning. Hundred most populous Nigerians including Africans die in chains.
“However, illegal immigration is dangerous not only to the illegal migrants themselves, it is costly to the countries and the nations accepting them. In order to drastically cut illegal immigration and reduce the toll on human lives, we and nations from the West battling illegal migration and other countries regard illegal immigrants as animals”.
Orji noted that Europe and Asia had recently experienced an increase in illegal immigrants from Nigeria adding that many migrants from Nigeria were women who were sexually abused by their sponsors and were compelled to engage in prostitution.
She pointed out that most of the Nigerians repatriated from foreign countries, especially Libya, were HIV positive.
She continued, “Some of those that voluntarily returned from Libya came back with various sexually transmitted diseases, including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Most of our ladies are used as sexual machines in Europe and other parts of the world.
“In some circumstances, illegal immigrants have their organs sold on black markets. Kidneys and livers of illegal immigrants are being given out to sick people in China and other countries. If you follow suit, you will know that so many organ that are being given out to people right now are kidneys and livers of the illegal immigrants.
“Some of them have been in detention for close to seven years, some of them are sentenced to 100 years imprisonment and at the end of the day,your families would have forgotten you and the next thing is that you are going to be brought out and said you are going to face some labour in order to get freed. In the process of taking you out for that labour, your kidney and liver will be extracted when you are still alive not when you are dead”.
The lawmaker therefore urged Nigerians emigrating from the country to have proper knowledge about their mission abroad in order to avoid being taken advantage of by their sponsors.
She further advised parents and family members not to mount pressure on young Nigerians to go abroad saying that such pressure could cause migrants to seek illegal and dangerous methods of immigration.
“Some think it is a class status for their wards to be abroad. Some families will sell their lands and other valuables for their children to travel abroad by all means. Most of them don’t even know why they are going abroad.
“When they eventually get there, they are subjected to various degrees of hardship which they can’t resist because of their (illegal) status. Some of them are lied against by the security agencies in those countries, but there is no one to defend them.
“Where are you going? What are you going to do in those countries? Some parents will sell their properties and assets in order to search for greener pastures abroad. It’s a wrong notion”, she cautioned.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Director, African -German Information Centre (AGIC), Hon. Kenneth Gbandi observed that while they were not discouraging Nigerians from traveling, however, Nigerians must learn to travel legally and responsibly.
Gbandi who recalled the ordeals of many Nigerians who traveled by the deserts to Libya, through the Mediterranean sea to Europe noted that there were many alternatives to traveling abroad among which were Blue Card and the Students Exchange programmes amongst others.
“So, if you want to travel, let us exploit all these opportunities to see whether it is possible to use that before you decide to go through a suicide mission in order to travel out of Nigeria”, he counseled.
Also speaking, the Director of MEPN, Femi Awoniyi, disclosed that there were at least 12,000 Nigerians in Germany awaiting deportation as their asylum claims had been rejected by the German government.
Awoniyi who quoted a figure provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said that over 2,500 migrants had died in the Mediterranean Sea while many others were believed to have died traveling across the Sahara Desert or in transit countries such as Libya.
Awoniyi who is also the Publisher of The African Courier added that most of the victims of illegal traffickers were Nigerians.
On her part, the Deputy Comptroller of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), Mrs. Sadat Hassan, disclosed that 90% of the illegal immigrants seeking asylum status were regularly rejected by European countries on the ground that Nigeria was not having any political unrest at the moment.
She appealed Nigerians to secure the required legal paperwork before attempting to migrate to Germany and other European countries, as it was not worth risking one’s life on a dangerous journey only to be deported or loose one’s life in the process adding that Nigerians at home live a more dignified life than their counterparts abroad who migrated illegally.
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