MMIA receives 4,281 deportees in 6 months

No fewer than 4,281 Nigerians were deported from various countries in the first half of 2017 through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

According to a report emanating from the Ministry of Interior Affairs, the figure is apart from those Nigerians who were repatriated through other airports or other numerous channels within the period under review.

The breakdown of the report, which was made available to newsmen on Sunday, indicated that those deported were divided into chartered and regular flights.

The document revealed that between January and June 2017; 2,251 Nigerians were deported through chartered flights, mainly from Libya and some European countries.

The breakdown revealed that 1,321 of the deportees were males while the other 930 were females.

Among those deported through regular flights, a majority of them were from Europe, South Africa and other countries within the continent. The report put their total figures at 2,030 Nigerians. According to the document, 1,502 males and 528 females were deported in the first half of the year.

According to the report, “Some of these deportees engaged in criminal activities in their host countries. For these sets of people, they were handed over to the Nigeria Police for further investigation and prosecution.

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“Also, some of them were caught were they tried to traffic banned substances to various countries in Europe, North America and other African countries. For these sets of people, they were immediately handed over to the officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Lagos airport, but for those with civil offenses, they were given to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP).”

The document further revealed that in the first half of the year, 691,954 passengers, both Nigerians and foreigners, used the facilities at MMIA to depart to various destinations from the country.

Out of these numbers, 519,215 were Nigerians and majorly males while another 179,739 were foreigners departing the country.

Also, within the period, 550,988 passengers arrived Nigeria through the international wing of the Lagos airport.

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The breakdown revealed that 392,237 of them were Nigerians while the other 158,751 were foreigners from various countries.