An Airbus 320 aircraft with registration number 5A-WAT, at about 3.00pm on Thursday, arrived the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport with 162 Nigerian voluntary returnees from Libya.
The returnees, who were stranded in war–torn country, comprised of 132 males, 27 females and three children.
Two of them had health challenges and were stretched out of the aircraft through the exit door at the tail of the aircraft by officials of National Emergency Management Agency and taken to an undisclosed hospital.
The returnees were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration in collaboration with Nigeria Embassy in Libya.
Shortly after their arrival, the returnees had their details taken by the Nigeria Immigration Service, NEMA, the Police, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and Other Related Matters.
They were then taken in buses belonging to the Skypower Aviation Handling Company and the Presidency, which took them to Hajj Camp.
Addressing journalists shortly after the returnees arrived Hajj Camp, the Operation Assistant with IOM in Libya, who escorted the returnees’ aircraft to Nigeria, Jumaben Hassan, stated that the people that alighted from the chartered aircraft, with the name–tag Ghadames Air, were voluntary returnees who were stranded in Libya.
Hassan noted that this was the second time the IOM was bringing back voluntary returnees to the country.
He stated that there would be another batch of Nigerian returnees soon, going by the requests IOM had received from Nigeria Embassy in Tripoli, Libya.
Speaking on those that were stretched out of the aircraft by NEMA officials, Hassan said that one of them had a car accident, while the other one was involved in a fire accident where he and his colleagues lived.
A representative of NEMA, Aliyu Sambo, told journalists that arrangements had been made to give the returnees counseling, re–orientation andsome stipends to reunite with their families.
IOM is a leading inter-governmental organisation in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, inter–governmental and non-governmental partners.
