The Nigerian fact-finding team on Libya, led by Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama (3rd from right), meeting Libyan officials at the Tetsura migrant detention camp in Tripoli. The delegation found over 600 Nigerians detained there / Photo: Abike Dabiri-Erewa/Twitter

Nigerian minister, officials in Libya to evacuate stranded citizens

A Federal Government of Nigeria’s special delegation, led by Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama, is currently in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, to deliberate with Libyan officials on the evacuation of Nigerians trapped in the country.

The Head, Press and Public Relations of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP),  Josiah Emerole, said the delegation left the country on Wednesday.

One of the detention centres where migrants are held in Tripoli, which visited by the Nigerian delegation / Photo: Abike Dabiri Erewa Twitter

 

The others members of the delegation are the Director-General, NAPTIP, Julie Okah-Donli, and Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Diaspora Matters.

Dabiri-Erewa has already shared a photo of the delegation meeting Libyan officials in Tripoli on Twitter.

According to Emerole, finding facts on the level of the enslavement of Nigerians in that country would be part of the delegation’s engagements in Libya.

A Nigerian returnee brought back home arrives in Lagos. More than 6,600 Nigerians were repatriated from Libya in 2017, but many more are still believed to be trapped in the North African country / Photo: NAN

 

He said that they would also engage the Libyan Authorities, Nigerian diplomats and Nigeria citizens living there, as well as International organisations working on migration issues in Libya.

Following reports of the enslavement of  migrants in Libya on CNN last November, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the evacuation of all Nigerians trapped in the country.

The President also set up a team led by the foreign affairs minister to work out modalities for carrying out the mass evacuation.

Since then, some high-level meetings have been held among various Federal Government Agencies with Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, presiding.

Kola Tella with NAN

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