FG To Facilitate Repatriation Of Over 300 Persons from UAE.
Caroline Ameh.
The Federal Government has cleared the air about social media reports alleging the Nigerian Mission in the UAE of abandoning some Nigerians stranded in the country as untrue. In a statement made available to Diplomatic Digest online on Sunday and signed by the spokesperson of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Francisca Omayuli, described the allegation as untrue and completely misleading.
The statement reads in part , “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerian Mission have been working assiduously with the UAE authorities to assist over 300 Nigerians stranded in the country for various reasons, ranging from over stay, lost passports, lack of documentation especially in the case of infants, to pending cases with the Emirati Police”. The majority of those affected are cases of overstay for which the UAE authorities will be prevailed upon to process their papers but are required by law to pay fines. Some of the affected Nigerians have fines of over $10,000 to pay.
According to Omayuli, the Nigerian Mission has been since August 15, 2022 working hard to collate the details of stranded Nigerians with the view to issuing Emergency Travel Certificates (ETC) to those with no means of identification.
Nigerians in the UAE were advised by the government to be law abiding and avoid actions that would inflict untold hardship on them.