Nigeria Deports 6 Britons Over Expatriate Quota

The Nigeria Immigration Service has deported six Britons who were arrested last Saturday for violating migration laws in Nigeria.

According to Martins Kure Abeshi, Comptroller-General of Immigrations in a chat with the Nations Newspapers, he explained why the Britons were to be deported.

“I just arrived from abroad Monday and met this case. As I’m talking, yesterday in the evening, the company that employed those expatriates, after my discussion with them they are to be responsible for their air ticket. As I’m talking now I’m sure they have been flown out.”

“One company employed them. They were in the services of that company, but they travelled out, when they were coming back, another employer gave them visa to come, which is against immigration law, it is against the law of the land. So their first employer complained about these expatiates, so it is an offence they have committed and we have ordered their deportation.”

“When we conduct our operation and discover that someone who is not a Nigerian is living in this country illegally, he will be repatriated. That is on our own part, they have to go.”

“There is another angle to it. If he is a worker, working in a company and we discover that he does not have papers to stay in this country, he has committed an offense against the state, the company that the expatriate is working will give us money; buy ticket or whatever is their responsibility.”

“Before anybody takes an appointment here as an expatriate, the Organization will write to immigration that they are taking immigration responsibility for that expatriate.

“If that expatriate commits any offence against the company and they want to remove him, that company must provide ticket so that the person is removed from this country.”

The six Britons were arrested following on alleged breach of Nigeria laws especially sections of the Immigration Act, 2015 regulating expatriate quota.

The expatriates were working for GMT Energy Resources, contractors to EXXONMOBIL, a US International Oil Company (IOC) in Nigeria with headquarters in Houston, Texas. At the time of the arrest of the six expatriates they were engaged by GMT in a project for the IOC.