Immigration at Lagos Airport Deports 278 Foreigners in Ten Months

ZION Olalekan

The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) Command, said in the past 10 months, no fewer than 278 foreigners had been deported from Lagos Airport for lack of entry visas into the country.

Controller of the command, Mr. Dikko Yashe, said the Ease-of-Doing-Business policy of the Federal Government has facilitated movement into the country by foreigners.

Yashe disclosed this at the weekend in Lagos during a ceremony organised for retirees and presentation of awards of excellence for deserving officers of the command.

The Area Controller said that some of the travellers would enter the country without securing the approval of the Comptroller-General of the service for their visa applications as required by law.

“We observe that most of our passengers prefer to get their visas on arrival, but the challenge we have is that some of the passengers don’t wait for approval from the CG. That is why we keep on returning people.

He emphasised that the airport command had keyed into the policy of Mr. Mohammed Babandede, the Comptroller General of NIS by reducing the contacts of its officers with travellers.

He said on the average, the command issues 150 visas on arrival to travellers weekly, stressing that most of the travellers prefer the new policy.

“I know that visa-on-arrival policy has tremendously increased travellers through the Lagos Airport Command. On the average, we issue about 150 visas on arrival or more, it depends on the influx of passengers.

“I have returned over 278 people without visas in the past 10 months.”

The influx into the country, he noted, was made possible by the visa-on-arrival programme which is a component of the ease of doing business policy.

On retirees, he said that 13 officers of different cadres retired from the command in recent time, while other seven officers were recognised for discharging their duties professionally.