The federal government has said Nigerians living abroad interested
in returning home on account of the coronavirus pandemic will pay before
their evacuation to Nigeria.
A report by Punch revealed that the Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Geoffrey Onyeama made this known on Friday, saying standed Nigerians
abroad will be required to pay for their flight ahead of the evacuation.
Asked if those who registered for evacuation would pay before or after their evacuation, the minister replied, “before evacuation.”
However, he did not respond when asked if the government had any plan for those who might not be able to afford a return ticket.
Many Nigerians had been clamouring to come back to Nigeria following the increase in cases of COVID-19 across the world.
A viral video showed about 100 Nigerians being evicted from their
homes and hotels in Guangzhou by the Chinese authorities last week.
Sequel to this, the MFA had directed Nigerian missions abroad to
compile a list of stranded Nigerian nationals who wished to come back
home.
It stated that the financial implications would be borne by the
prospective evacuees, who would also be compulsorily quarantined on
arrival.
In response to the directive, the Nigerian Consulate in New York,
United States, Nigerian High Commission in the UK and in other countries
announced that they had begun compiling names of Nigerians willing to
return home.
Findings on Sunday indicated that the registration exercise for
Nigerians interested in returning home has ended with over 2,000
individuals enrolling for evacuation.
Confirming this on Sunday, the spokesman, Nigerians in the Diaspora
Commission, Abdul-Rahman Balogun, stated that the missions were
currently processing the names of those who had registered.
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