by Oge Okonkwo

About 90 Nigerians have been deported from Tunisia, they arrived at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Tuesday.

According to the South West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr. Iyiola Akande, the deportees arrived at about 12.32 am in Nouvel Air Airbus 320-214 with registration number 177Y.

They were earlier scheduled to arrive Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at about 3.05 pm on Monday.

The Nation news reports:

The South West Zonal Coordinator said that the repatriation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) with the support of Tunisian government.

The returnees were received by various agencies such as Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) that checked their identities to ascertain their nationalities, NAPTIP, Police and other stakeholders.

The returnees he said consisted of two infants of five months and fourteen months old, 12 teenagers, which also has 13 young women and 61 young men.

He disclosed that 71 of them came from Edo state, eight from Delta State; three are from Imo and Lagos State while Kano and Plateau has two and one among the returnees respectively.

One of the deportees Success Smart, a 15 year of teenage girl claimed that she travelled out of the Nigeria two years ago through the tedious Libyan route.

On why she did not return with the earlier batch during Libyan repatriation exercise, she said she was learning a trade to become of hairdresser and that her parents refused to sign agreement with her master as an apprentice while she was in Nigeria.

She, however, regretted travelling out of the country and urged other Nigerian youths against seeking greener any pasture abroad.

The deportees said that there is no crisis in Tunisia but that there is no country place like home.

Akande disclosed that officials of National Agency for Protection and Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have taking over the case the cases of the teenagers for reorientation and rehabilitation actions.

According to NEMA, transport allowances were given to everyone of them to facilitate their journeys to their respective destinations and that the agency took the deportees out of the airport at about 2:15 to their various departure points.