It has been confirmed that 48 Nigerian deportees arrived Murtala Muhammed International Airport this morning on a chartered flight from London NUJ Europe have gathered.
In a further investigation it can be revealed that roughly 50 Nigerians are deported every two weeks from London Heathrow to Lagos every month and recent reports have suggested that these numbers will only increase as the Home Office aims to work better with Nigerian authorities in the near future. Many of them have been deported over illegal stay permits.
A Home Office spokesman in a written statement indicated that “those with no right to be in the UK should return home. We expect people to leave the country voluntarily but, where they do not, Immigration Enforcement will seek to enforce their departure.”
Many of those who were deported were allowed to speak to newsmen and complained of the way they were handled by the British authorities, alleging that majority of them were not even allowed take their belongings before being deported. We reported last week that British authorities plan to deport 29,000 Nigerians who are believed to be living in the UK illegally.
In a widely circulated press statement, Alexia, a Nigeria-born, British fiery human rights activist led the anti-deportation campaign
UK Lawyer and Professor Alexia Thomas says that these measures are divicive. She added;
“The United Kingdom Ruling Government is given up till the 7th of December, 2015, to pronounce mandate to release Nigerian citizens from Immigration Detention Centres in the UK unconditionally without compromise, or else by 9th December, 2015, they (British Government) should expect Nigerian citizens to boycott British products and produce. The Nigerian people will refuse to patronize British Airlines and Nigerian citizens will refuse to visit British Embassy or Submit Applications nor pay them any fees.
According to the BBC, the deported Nigerians were brought into Nigeria on a chartered flight from London. Some of them are said to be stranded at the airport.
It would be recalled that several number of people strived to refuse deportation yesterday in London as a crop of anti-deportation activists disrupted the planned-journey by the home office, resulting in delaying one of the buses conveying over a thousand illegal immigrants scheduled to be be deported to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
In a statement issued last night in London by the immigration office it was noted that attempts to disrupt the deportation plan was unsuccessful.
The press statement read:
PRESS RELEASE -
"Anti-Deportation Activists have stopped bus leaving detention centre and Women in Yarlswood continue to resist being removed.
"Anti-Deportation Activists have stopped bus leaving detention centre and Women in Yarlswood continue to resist being removed.
Ten anti-deportation activists have travelled to the outskirts of London near Heathrow Airport in an attempt to stop tonight's charter flight to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.
Two supporters have glued themselves to Colnbrook IRC gates in Solidarity with deportees set to be removed from the UK. A bus with people on it to be removed is behind the blockade and currently cannot make its way to London Stansted.
Other buses with detainees are already waiting at the airport to be forced onto a privately chartered airline.
Police are currently at the scene attempting to remove the supporters.
We have heard from Movement For Justice that women are continuing to resist their removal from Yarlswood in the Avocet Wing.
The last news we have is that the bus has left Yarlswood with only 6 or 7 women on it, even though there were 40 women down for the flight. There is a group of 12 women in a room still refusing to leave because they think another van maybe arranged"
Additional stories by Lamzat
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