The House of Representatives Committee on Diaspora on Tuesday blamed the Minister of Foreign Affairs over maltreatment, torture and dehumanisation of Nigerians in Lebanon due to federal government lukewarm altitude in handling of such cases.
The Committee further requested for explanation as to why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs suspended the airlifting of Nigerians stranded in different countries across the globe due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Committee led by Mrs. Tolulope Akande-Sadipe (PDP, Oyo) further alleged that the executive was not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens living abroad whereas their counterparts were enjoying their stay in the country.
According to her, citizens were faced with and subjected to the worst forms of abuses, inhuman treatments and in many cases undeserved death. As she reiterated “This treatment must be brought to an end by our collective resolve and response”.
The following observations were raised during an interagency meeting organized by the House Committee on Diaspora with the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) and National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
In her opening remarks, she said “many nations of Africa, Middle East, Europe, North and South America, Nigerian immigrants (legal or illegal) have been subjected to untold slavery, prostitution, Organ harvesting, Jail, Death Sentences and even when a microscopic few are able to establish contacts with any institution or representative of the Nigeria Government, little or no relief get to them”.
She continued, “It is noteworthy, to reaffirm that no nation can thrive in isolation hence the different international conventions, protocols, treaties and agreements among nations, one of which is International Convention on Human Rights.
“Over the years, Nigeria has religiously adhered to and upheld all such agreements and has consequently guaranteed the safety, protection and wellbeing of other nationals living within its borders sometimes even moreso than that of its citizens. You see personal Police convoys with expatriates just because they are expatriates. People who are mere citizens with no extra ordinary responsibilities in their own country.
Nigerians abroad deserve better treatment than what are meted on them”, she noted.
Meanwhile, some members of the Committees also tackled the Minister of Foreign Affairs for handling the cases with kit gloves as they urged the Minister to come up with retaliatory policies that would send signals to host countries guilty of such criminalities.
Speaking, Mr. Yusuf Tanjudeen (PDP, Kogi) asked that, ” for how long are we going to fold our arms and watch our brothers and sisters been manhandled and subjected to to all manner of torture and slavery before we react. Can’t the executive put in place some retaliatory measures like refusal to issue visa to them and of course some other stringent measures that would let them know that we are not happy with their actions against our people “, he stated.
Collaborating the position of Mr. Yusuf, Mr. Inombek-Abiante Awaji (PDP, Rivers) said “we have many Lebanese who own businesses such as super markets and construction companies here in Nigeria, yet no one disturbs them. We also have a lot of Lebanese walking our streets freely without harassment so if these people are treating our people badly over there we can not sit back and do nothing about it. It is high time we come up with stringent policies that would send signal to all these countries”.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onnyema told the Committee that a lot was been done to salvage the situation that the maltreatment of Nigerian citizens was not limited to Lebanon alone that so many other countries were guilty of similar offenses.
“I would like to say that we have been doing our best to tackle the these issues and it is because of our proactive responses that we have been able to rescue a lot of Nigerians who were facing similar challenges in different parts of the world. The Ministry seriously frowns at the inhuman treatment our people are most times subjected to and we have done a lot in that regard especially the ones we are aware of or those either reported to us. But again, I must say our people are not helping matters either. I have a video of a Nigerian lady who refused to come back to Nigeria, as she was supposed to be amongst those that were airlifted from Lebanon recently. Her reasons were that she went to Lebanon to make money for herself and the family, so she prefer to stay back and suffer than come back to Nigeria, she does not have anything to fall back on when she returns home (Nigeria)”, the Minister explained.
On taking stringent measures against those countries allegedly involved in the menace, Mr. Onnyema said, “on the issue of retaliation, we have Nigerians who do businesses in Lebanon freely so we can not because of incidences such as these, then come up with such policies that would end up affecting the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and Lebanon but we have been engaging the Lebanese authorities and of course governments of other countries as well”.
Again, the Minister said “the Ministry had to suspend the airlifting of Nigerian citizens due to certain factors such as funds etc. Formerly, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigeria National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) withdrew their support that they could not continue. However, we are commencing operations soon because even today we are having a meeting in that regard”.
On his part, the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. Mohammed Babadede in his submission urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to come up with a policy document such as working conditions for exportation of labour. He said Nigerians who want to go outside the country and work would be protected by such laws irrespective of the nature of the jobs they want to go and do, he stated.
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