258 Nigerians deported from Libya

258 Nigerians comprising of 220 males, 18 females and 20 children and infants, were deported from Libya last night May 16th. They were received at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport by the South West Zonal office of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants & Internally Displaced Persons.

One of the deportees Akhere Ken who is from Edo State, told newsmen that he had been in detention for over a year in Libya. Ken said he was arrested on board a boat while trying to cross the Mediterranean sea to Italy. He stated that he was locked up with 1500 inmates in a cell meant for only 20 inmates and that some of the inmates started dying due to suffocation.

“As one inmate dies, more Nigerians are brought and squeezed into the room. Any inmate with medical condition is not given even common paracetamol. We watch helplessly as our friends die before our very eyes,” Ken said 1268 Nigerians have been deported to Nigeria since December 2016.