522 West Africans Repatriated From Gabon Over Illegal Travel Papers

The Nigeria Immigration Service has received a total of 522 West African deportees from Garbon through the Calabar seaport.

The people were repatriated on board a travelers vessel, which had 13 crew members and 71 Nigerians, while other nationalities included 128 Malians, 87 from Burkina Faso, 57 Senegalese, those from Guinea and Togo were 41 each.
Of those repatriated, 21 came from Benin Republic, 9 from Ghana and only 3 were Gambia nationals.
The alleged illegal migrants claimed that the Government of Garbon meted out inhuman treatment to some of them despite showing proof of travel and resident permits.

One of the deportees from Oron Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Victor Elijah told newsmen in Calabar: “I spent my life in Gabon. All my business is in Gabon. I travel out of Gabon to Dubai; my son and my wife I left them there, even my car. As I speak with you here, I have my card; I have my papers, which shows that I’m a Nigerian-Gabone.”

Kaaku, a 43 year old immigrant from Ghana, said “the authorities caught us and sent us back to our country. They kept us for days without food. Truly, we were apprehended because we did not have the relevant travel document. But, I left my child back there in Gabon.”

“We travelled out of our country to find means of survival in Gabon. They asked us to do our paper, but we could not do the paper. So, they arrested us. They regard us as animals. They don’t want any stranger in Gabon. They just repatriated us like animals”, said another Ghanaian immigrant, Masa’audu Adamu, who was engaged in the car wash business.


Transporting Migrants

In an interview with some journalists at the Calabar Port in Cross River State, South of Nigeria, the Comptroller of Command, Mrs. Funke Adeuyi said the migrants were deported due to their inability to present a valid travel document.

Mrs. Adeuyi said “usually migrants have three sources – country of source; country of transit and countries of origin. Probably, a lot of them left through the Calabar River, which is closer to Gabon and a great attraction to migrants. But, maybe the Gabonese Government does not have the funds to send them by air and resorted to send them on board a vessel ship, which is cheaper, so that they can transport them to their various countries”.
According to the Cross River State Comptroller, transporting the migrants to their destinations or countries of origin was the sole responsibility of the Government of Gabon.

“We have been in diplomatic relations with Gabon prior to the arrival of these migrants. The Gabonese Government took sole responsibility for their transport to Nigeria and from Nigeria to their various countries”, she stated.

Colonel Moustapha Sarr, an attaché from the Senegalese Embassy in Nigeria, who was on ground to receive the deportees, said “we are here to receive our people. We are grateful to the Comptroller for the treatment given to our people. Nigeria has been kind to us and we are grateful for that. My country through the ministry of foreign affairs has made adequate arrangements to receive the migrants in Senegal”.
387 migrants would be leaving for their countries through Seme, the border between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin, while 64 Nigerians will ease out through Jibia border in Katsina State and all of them would be conveyed from Calabar in a total of 10 buses.
According to the Nigeria Immigration Service, the arrival of the migrants was the second time the NIS was receiving deportees from Gabon.
In June 23, 2015, the first batch of 590 migrants were from the West African region.