The Federal Government has repatriated a total of 542 Nigerians from the United Arab Emirates.
They arrived at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja at 4.29 am on Sunday aboard a chartered Maxair flight.
It is over two months now that some Nigerians sent out an SOS to the Nigerian government over being stranded in Dubai.
The Nigerian Mission in the UAE immediately started profiling with a promise to evacuate.
This promise has now been fulfilled with the evacuation of 542 Nigerians, consisting 79 males, 460 females, and 3 infants.
The evacuees earlier scheduled to arrive Nigeria Saturday morning were held back due to certain unforeseen circumstances.
The evacuees were received by a Federal Government team led by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and airport officials, security agencies including National Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), NAPTIP, Nigerian Diaspora Commission, NDLEA, Nigerian Correctional Service, Nigerian Customs Service, Port Health Services, NCDC and others.
On arrival, the returnees were screened by the Health officials, profiled by various relevant agencies, and cleared by the Nigerian Immigration Service before being given a token of transport fare by NEMA before leaving the airport.
This is also to remind Nigerians to be very careful in accepting travel opportunities
The experiences of most of the returnees show that many of such, are traps set up by human traffickers.
The Director General, NEMA, Mustapha Habib Ahmed, who officially received the returnees on behalf of the federal government admonished the returnees to learn from their experiences and be law abiding citizens by promoting the image of the country.
Ahmed, represented by the Director of Finance and Accounts, Alhaji Sani Ahmed Jiba, noted that the federal government had approved the evacuation and provision of the token for the returnees to support movement of the returnees back to their homes.
