Off the wire
• Nigerian state imposes curfew after bloody communal conflicts  • UN Security Council pays tribute to late Russian UN Ambassador Churkin  • Spanish stock market rises 0.36 pct  • Belarus loses 1.5 pct of GDP due to undersupply of Russian oil in Jan.  • Kiev, rebels accuse each other of disrupting weapon withdrawal  • Egypt, Jordan stress two-state solution as key to end Mideast conflict  • Urgent: Kurdish-led rebels enter Syria's Deir al-Zour to fight IS  • Syrian rebels, families reach destination after evacuating Serghaya  • Roundup: EU's Juncker warns Britain of "hefty" Brexit bill  • Climate change could lead to decrease of mineral vital to human health: study  
You are here: 　 Home

Nigeria receives more returnees from Libya

Xinhua, February 22, 2017 Adjust font size:

At least 171 Nigerians voluntarily returned from Libya on Tuesday aboard a chartered Nouvelair aircraft .

The aircraft with registration number TS-1NB landed about 4 p.m. at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria's economic hub.

The returnees included seven children and six infants.

Another batch comprising 161 Nigerians, had on Feb. 14 also voluntarily returned from the North African country where they had been stranded.

The new set of returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora who addressed reporters at the airport, commended the IOM for facilitating the return of the Nigerians.

According to her, the Nigerian government, IOM and some states have put in place programs to rehabilitate Nigerians who volunteered to return from Libya.

She reiterated the government's commitment to the welfare of Nigerians all over the world, while stressing that it was addressing the issue of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa.

The official described the attacks as shameful, noting that it was wrong to generalize Nigerians in the country as criminals. Enditem