No fewer than three million Nigerians are living illegally in the United Kingdom (UK), the Senate said yesterday through its Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Committee Chairman Alhaja Monsurat Sunmonu made the statement after a meeting with officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service at the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
She said an Assistant Deputy Comptroller–General, Investigations, Intelligence and Enforcement of the NIS, Mr. T. A Hundeyin, also confirmed that the 48 Nigerians recently deported from the UK committed various types of crimes and had served prison terms.
Her words: “The deputy comptroller just confirmed to us that it is not true that 29, 000 Nigerians are being deported from the United Kingdom or that the UK government intends to deport 29, 000 Nigerians.
“He (however) said that only 48 Nigerians were deported 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 deported.”
She said further: ”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.”
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