News

The authorities in the southern German state of Bavaria have announced that a Nigerian who went on a rampage recently at an Anchor Centre (Ankerzentrum), a big holding camp for refugees, has been deported to Nigeria. The news was broken on Thursday to the Bayerischer Rundfunk by the Bavarian State Office for Asylum and Repatriation (Bayerische Landesamt für Asyl und …

A week after 20 Nigerians were deported to their home country, refugee support groups in Germany have raised alarm that at least 2,400 Gambian refugees in the country were slated deportation. The groups, Flüchtlingsrat Baden-Württemberg (Refugee Council Baden-Württemberg), a non-profit organization that advises refugees and advocates for their rights, and the Gambia Helfernetz (Gambia Helpers Network), have written to Gambian …

The continuing education program Digital Media for Media Practitioners with Refugee  History (Digitale Medien für Medienschaffende mit Fluchtgeschichte or DMF) of the Hamburg Media School is entering its eighth round this autumn. The Hamburg Media School offers these media practitioners – regardless of their residency status – a six-month free modular course program followed by an internship in a Hamburg-based …

Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, Gambia’s first post-independence president who led the small West African country for 24 years before being deposed in a 1994 coup, has died at the age of 95, the Gambian presidency said on Tuesday. The office of President Adama Barrow, whose election in 2016 brought an end to the rule of the army officer who toppled …

Aminata Touré was on Wednesday (28 August) elected the new Vice-President of the state parliament (Landtag) of Schleswig-Holstein. She received 46 of the 69 valid votes cast. Schleswig-Holstein is one of the 16 states of Germany and its capital city is Kiel. The 26-year-old Green party member, who is the second youngest member of parliament, said she was “fully relieved …

Professor Jason Osai* of the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, writes on man, religion and soul and how to achieve the eternally sought-after global peace devoid of want and war. Institutional religion has divided the world along a multiplicity of jaded philosophical and theological lines thereby creating socio-cultural and economic hedgerows that have pitched husband against wife, mother against …

Our Correspondent in Nigeria, Raphael Adenaike, was at the Lagos airport when Nigerian deportees, including a single mother of one, arrived from Germany on Monday 19 August. The deportees, whose asylum applications had been rejected, narrated their personal ordeals and experiences with the German police, immigration officials and medical doctors as well as the Nigerian Embassy to Raphael. With little …

The physical assault on Senator Ike Ekweremadu on 17 August in Nuremberg while the Nigerian frontline politician was attending the 2nd Annual Igbo Cultural Day continues to generate controversy in Nigeria. Kinsmen of Senator Ike Ekweremadu, for example, have called for the thorough investigation, arrest and prosecution of the people, alleged to be members of the separatist Indigenous People of …

A recent debate over the revocation of refugee status for Syrian nationals in Germany has raised some questions. Are people with refugee protection allowed to visit their home country? What happens if you are found to have broken the law? Charlotte Hauswedell of InfoMigrants takes a closer look. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has suggested that asylum-seekers from Syria should …

Resident foreigners convicted by German courts are increasingly being expelled from the country irrespective of their residency status. This was revealed in the response of the federal government to a parliamentary enquiry of the Linke party in the Bundestag, the news agency epd has reported. According to the report, 7,408 deportation orders were issued last year. In 2017, there were …

Nigeria has again faulted claims that there were 30,000 of its citizens who are irregular migrants in Germany awaiting repatriation. The Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Alhaji Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, said the figure was unrealistic against the background that there’re only 32,000 Nigerians legally resident in the country. “So how could there be 30,000 Nigerians irregularly living in the country?” he …

The so-called ‘Orderly Return Law’ (das Geordnete-Rückkehr-Gesetz) was approved in June. It went into force on Wednesday (21 August). It gives authorities and police more powers to enforce deportation orders. Critics fear more refugees could now be legally detained. The tightening of rules governing the deportation of rejected asylum-seekers took effect on Wednesday. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) said …

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has kicked off the registration of Nigerians resident in Germany. The exercise, being carried out in collaboration with private data management companies, enrols Nigerians, including those living in the diaspora, in the country’s National Identity Database. A registered person is issued a National Identification Number (NIN), a unique set of eleven-digit number. Kicking off …

Nearly one quarter of Germany’s population of 82 million has an immigrant background, according to statistics released Wednesday (21 August). Germany’s statistical agency Destatis said 20.8 million people in 2018 had a so-called “migrant background,” defined as a person who is a migrant or has at least one parent not born as a German citizen. That’s an increase of half …

A Cameroonian court handed life sentences to 10 separatist leaders on Tuesday after finding them guilty of charges including terrorism in their fight to break away from the Francophone-dominated central government, their lawyers said. They included Julius Ayuk Tabe, a key figure in the Anglophone movement in western Cameroon, whose followers have made his release since he was arrested 18 …

While the assault on Senator Ike Ekweremadu has been strongly condemned by all Nigerian diaspora organisations, some commentators have called for a broader look at the import of the unfortunate incident for the culture of governance in their home country. Dr Ike Ekweremadu, a member of the Nigerian Senate – the upper chamber of the country’s bicameral national legislature, was …

President Muhammadu Buhari swore in the members of his cabinet for his second term in office today and assigned portfolios to the new ministers. The full list is below: Dr. Ikechukwu Ogah (Abia State) – Minister of State, Mines and Steel Development Mohammed Musa Bello (Adamawa State) – Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom State) – …

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved a change of name for the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi in Benue State. The new name for the institution is Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi. The approval follows the president’s decision to sign a bill amending the law that set up the university. Mr Buhari also approved a separate bill that changes the name …

PRESS STATEMENT NIDOG condemns assault on Senator Ekweremadu in Nuremberg The Executive Committee of the Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation Germany (NIDO Germany) held an emergency meeting on Sunday, 18 August to discuss the assault on the person of Senator Ike Ekweremadu at the Second Annual Igbo Cultural Day on Saturday, 17 August in the German city of Nuremberg. The meeting …

The Nigerian Embassy in Germany has called on German authorities to unmask the identity of and try the Aug. 17 attackers of Sen. Ike Eweremadu in Nuremberg, Germany. In a statement on Monday in Berlin, the embassy also demanded that the attackers be tried in accordance with German laws.   The embassy stated that investigations would help identify the attackers …