No fewer than three million Nigerians are living illegally in the United Kingdom.
This was disclosed by the Nigeria Immigration Service.
The Deputy Controller General of the NIS in charge of Investigation and Intelligence, T. A. Hundeyin, at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on the deportation of 48 Nigerians by the Government of the United Kingdom, dispelled media reports that Britain is planing to deport 29,000 Nigerians.
Hundeyin explained that only 48 people were scheduled for deportation and had arrived in the country, with 45 among them having committed offences.
Fielding questions from journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Senator Monsurat Sunmonu, said it is not true that 29,000 Nigerians will be deported from the United Kingdom.
Sunmonu equally said three million Nigerians are living illegally in United Kingdom.
The Chairman said: “The Assistant Deputy Comptroller-General, Investigations, Intelligence and Enforcement of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. T. A. Hundeyin, just confirmed to us now that it is not true that 29,000 Nigerians are being deported from the United Kingdom or that the United Kingdom government intends to deport 29,000 but that only 48 Nigerians and he had shown us their names and records that actually confirmed that they had all served their prison sentences so that is why they are being decorated.
“He also said that about three million Nigerians are illegally living in the United Kingdom and that if three million Nigerians are living there illegally, and they are only removing just 48 people confirmed to have committed crime and jailed, then the situation is not too bad.
“We will not relent in our efforts on checking and doing our oversight functions.
“If it requires for us to go there and visit them and to ask questions, we won’t mind to go there and to give Nigerians and to give them the history and the records of what we find out.”
It could be recalled that 48 Nigerians recently deported from the United Kingdom arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos in a chartered flight.
Some Nigerians had recently expressed concern over UK’s plan to deport 29,000 Nigerians and said due process be followed in the exercise.
Some of the deportees queried the action of the British government.
The spokesperson of the NIS, Kings Ekpedeme, confirmed the development, but said the figure was not up to 500 as speculated.
Ekpedemi said those who arrived included 44 men and four females.
He said: “About 48 Nigerians were deported by the government of the United Kingdom. They arrived Lagos yesterday onboard a chartered flight. They were allowed to go because the offence they were accused of are immigration related. They are 48 and not 500 as being rumoured. The deportees include 44 adult male and four female.”
Ekpedeme said the deportees were arrested by British police.