NIS Prevents 23,472 from leaving Nigeria in
15 months
In its
efforts to prevent young Nigerians from being lured into terrorism,
prostitution, slavery and other untoward activities abroad by unscrupulous
individuals, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) has continued to be
stringent in scrutinising those intending to travel out of the country.
PRNigeria
gathered that in the fifteen months period running from January 2014 to March
2015, the Service debarred a total of 23,472 individuals from travelling out of
the country from the various departure points.
This is in
addition to the 758 others who were refused admission into their intending
countries of arrival.
There have
been reports in recent times of some Nigerians departing to join terrorist
groups especially in the Middle East and North Africa including children of
serving and retired top functionaries.
Again, two
cousins from Kano were caught at the weekend trying to illegally cross into
Pakistan from India where they were students of a Delhi university in their bid
to join the Islamic State group.
Imran Kabeer
24 and Sani Jamiliu 25, were arrested on Friday 7 as they made their way
allegedly to join the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq as they made to scale a
barbed wire fence.
When
contacted on the development, Spokesperson for the Nigeria Immigration Service,
Chukwuemaka Obuah said "what the NIS is doing is to bar young Nigerians
with doubtful intentions from leaving our shores.
“Before the
advent of ISIS the NIS have been battling with illegal migration, organised or
otherwise. The push and pull factors have always been there and the NIS has
fashioned a robust profiling mechanism that identifies those whose intent for
going abroad is either inimical to themselves or the image of the country. The
government exercise of diplomatic protection is exercised not only abroad but
at ports of entry."
He
reiterated that “Nigeria is a catchment area for recruiters because of the high
number of jobless people in the country. The terrorist group has a syndicate
that arrange travel documents, visas, ticket and money for their recruits.
“To counter
this, the NIS now engages in intense profiling of travellers. We have always
had problems of Nigerians going abroad for greener pasture. We look at the age
of the intending traveller and the person he is travelling with, put them by
the side and profile them thoroughly,” he declared.
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