Nigeria Immigration Service Deports 108 Illegal Aliens in Kaduna

The Comptroller of the Kaduna State Command of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Alhaji Hamman Yerima, Monday paraded 103 illegal aliens, who entered the country illegally from Niger Republic.

Yerima explained that many of the illegal aliens were picked up at some of the Government Reserved Areas (GRA) within Kaduna metropolis, where they were employed as security guards.

He said they would be deported immediately to their home country and urged Nigerians to engage only legally permitted aliens for security jobs.

Yerima blamed the influx of illegal aliens into the country on the nation’s porous borders, urging that the borders should be fully equipped to checkmate the movement of illegal immigrants.

According to him, “the command of the NIS conducted mop up operations against illegal immigrants in the state. This time around, we conducted an operation in Kachia local government area on May 26, and we arrested 25 illegal immigrants.

“The next day, we also conducted an operation in the high brow areas of Kaduna North that is, Ungwan Rimi GRA, Malali GRA, Ungwan Dosa and Marafa where we arrested 59 suspects. Then at the toll gate, along Zaria road, we also arrested 17 suspects, and earlier on we arrested two suspects, so all in all we have 103 suspects.

“All the suspects are going to be repatriated this evening (yesterday) by the special grace of God. They are all Nigeriens. They are into menial jobs. They can be lured with small amount of money to do anything. We are sending them back by road.”

“Our borders are still in porous condition, and nothing seems to have been done about them.  I think these borders need more equipment, more logistics in terms of vehicles, in terms of communication equipments, and even the moribund border patrol aircrafts should be revived.

“Most of these aliens are being engaged as security men and dry cleaners by highly placed Nigerians, they don’t bother to come to the immigration to register them.

“We never say that they should not come to Nigeria, they should come, but there are guidelines, there are conditions, they should come with a travelling documents, national passports, or ECOWAS  travelling certificate, then pass through an established immigration control force, let them stamp this passport, they have seen you coming in, then the arrest is ok, just report to our office and we do ECOWAS resident permit, and they can be employed for God knows how many years, I have no problem with that.”

Source: Thisday