Germany seeks to repatriate 30,000 Nigerian irregular migrants

The German government is proposing a new arrangement to allow for the repatriation of some 30,000 Nigerian irregular migrants. The proposal is aimed at streamlining the current system, which Germany considers too slow.

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama, met with the Chief Security Adviser to the German President, Dr. Jan Hecker in Abuja, Nigeria to discuss the proposal.
Onyeama said Germany is not pleased with the number of irregular migrants and asylum seekers from Nigeria and has lost confidence in the existing repatriation system.
Currently, Nigerians seeking asylum in Germany go through a court process, they are assessed and if they are rejected, they may appeal the decision.

Once they’ve exhausted all the remedies or procedures available to them, the German government would then ask the Nigerian government to issue an emergency travel certificate to repatriate them, because they often will not have passports.

“The Germans are saying that the time the Nigerian embassy and the consulate take in this process is too long and a lot of the work that the Nigerian embassy and the consulate do is to repeat what the Germans have already done,” Onyeama told Deutsche Welle.

According to Onyeama, the new process would eliminate delay deciding whether or not a migrant is eligible for repatriation having exhausted available legal avenues after which the German government will take responsibility for the repatriation of such migrants without the involvement of the Nigerian government.

Onyeama further said that the proposed process is a total shift in the current system. He said Germany will issue travel documents to the repatriated migrants and also be responsible for their return to Nigeria.

“The point I made is to say that it would require changes in our laws of travel documents for Nigerians and our laws to wave any role for our embassies and consulates in the repatriation of Nigerians. At the moment, our mission and embassies are involved in the process. They issue travel documents when a final decision has been taken for repatriation,” he noted.

Onyeama stated that in the last two years, only about 200 Nigerian irregular migrants had returned to the country out of about 30,000 listed for repatriation from Germany.

Photo Source: NaijaGists.com. Nigerian migrants seeking asylum in Germany.

TMP – 24/05/2018