No fewer than 1,100 Nigerian migrants stranded in Agadez, Niger Republic, have returned to the country through Kano State, authorities confirmed on Friday.
The returnees, who arrived by road, were received and processed by officials of the Nigeria Immigration Service and other partner agencies at designated reception centres in Kano.
The Commandant of the Immigration Training School, Kano, Anthony Akuneme, disclosed this in a statement, noting that the migrants were immediately subjected to documentation and profiling upon arrival.
According to him, the returnees are being processed through the Migration Information and Data Analysis System at the Migrants Arrival, Knowledge and Information Area before being moved to the International Transit and Stay of Knowledge centre for further profiling, counselling and reintegration.
He said, “Personnel are on ground alongside other relevant federal and state agencies to ensure hitch-free and safe processing of the returnees.”
Findings showed that the Kano Nationality Sortation Centre, alongside MAKIA and ITSK facilities, serves as a structured reception corridor for returning migrants, where they are profiled and linked to reintegration programmes.
The exercise is being coordinated by the NIS in collaboration with the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the International Organization for Migration, and relevant state government bodies.
Agadez, a city in northern Niger, has long functioned as a major transit hub for African migrants seeking passage through Libya to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.
Between 2015 and 2018, the route ranked among the busiest migration corridors globally, with hundreds of thousands of migrants passing through annually.
Although authorities in Niger introduced anti-smuggling laws in subsequent years, irregular migration has persisted despite intensified crackdowns.
The situation has been further compounded by political instability in the Sahel region following the 2023 military coup in Niger, which disrupted regional security and migration controls.
Meanwhile, data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees indicates that over 269,000 Nigerians displaced by insurgency in the North-East are currently sheltering in the Diffa region of Niger.
The IOM also noted that thousands of stranded Nigerians have been assisted to return home from Niger since 2017, with many of them being young people who embarked on failed migration journeys to Europe.
Authorities said efforts are ongoing to reintegrate the latest batch of returnees into society.
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