Chinedu Eze
About 171 Nigerians who were stranded in Libya voluntarily returned to Nigeria tuesday.
They heaved a sigh of relief when the aircraft that brought them landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, tuesday evening.
The returnees comprised of 112 females and 59 males; the females included 109 adults, two children and one infant, while the males comprised 49 adults, five children and five infants.
THISDAY learnt that the Nigerians voluntarily returned home with the assistance of International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the federal government, just like the161 Nigerians who voluntarily returned last week.
They arrived at the cargo terminal of the airport aboard a chartered aircraft and on hand to receive them were the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, alongside officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), among others.
Some of the returnees wept uncontrollably as they arrived, ventilating their grief as they recalled the awful experience they went through in the North African country that has witnessed internecine civil war since the death of the late leader Muamar Gaddafi.
Dabiri-Erewa, who spoke with journalists at the Hajj camp where the returnees were profiled, alerted Nigerians of human trafficking syndicates that specialise in luring young Nigerians to Europe and warned irregular migrants that are still in Libya to return home, saying irregular migration to the North African country attracts death.
According to her, the returnees should not be stigmatised as they went in search of better lives.
The Director of Search and Rescue, NEMA, Air Commodore Salisu Mohammed, said NEMA had taken responsibility for their rehabilitation with their families.
Also, representatives of states like Edo and Delta, among others were on ground to receive their indigenes.
