Nigerian supervising agency for the documentation of foreigners has declared that it would begin mass deportation of undocumented foreigners all over the country on January 13, 2020.
The agency maintained six-month grace for the appropriate documentation given by the federal government expires on January 12, 2020.
The Herald gathered that top officials of the agency on Saturday, November 23, stated that there won’t be any extension once the grace period expires.
The officials noted that all undocumented foreigners above 18 years without evidence of proper documentation would be arrested after the grace period and promptly deported at the expiration of the grace period.
The agency warned that Nigerians harbouring undocumented foreigners or having them in their employment would be jailed seven years or made to pay a fine of N1m.
It said that Nigerians popularly known as agents, who usually facilitate the illegal movement of young girls and boys from neighbouring countries into Nigeria for the purpose of linking them up with those in need of domestic servants in homes across the country now stand the risk of a 10-year jail term or a fine of N1 million.
The spokesperson for the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Sunday James also explained that migrants not captured on the migrant e-registration database by January 12, 2020 would be arrested and prosecuted.
Earlier, The Nigeria Immigration Service vowed to charge and deport foreigners who may want to illegally observe next month’s general elections, by disguising as tourists or otherwise
The Controller General of Immigration, Muhammad Babandede, disclosed this during his first quarterly forum on the Service’s preparation for the elections with Command Comptrollers and Zonal Coordinators Thursday in Abuja.
He explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is already taking care of the accreditation of foreign election observer to ensure only genuine observers are allowed access to election venue.
“If you are a monitor (sic) participating in election you should declare it right from the beginning. We don’t want people to do countersign operation in the name of election. We don’t want anybody who will come and create tension and crises in our community so any none Nigerian coming in, we must know the purpose of coming,“ Babandede said.
