The duty of any government is to ensure that its citizens have access to basic necessities of life.

When this is lacking, the citizens look outside the shores of their country for greener pastures.

According to Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, there are about fifteen million Nigerians in various parts of the world.

With some of them facing different challenges such as deportation, discrimination and attacks.

Recently, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ambassador Michael Abikoye, protested the inhuman treatment of Nigerians by the Ghana Immigration Service with the deportation of seven hundred and twenty three Nigerians between 2018 and 2019.

Ambassador Abikoye said citizens were deported for alleged illegal stay, cyber-crime and prostitution.

While countries routinely deport illegal foreign nationals and migrants, news of the arrival of Nigerian deportees from various countries have become frequent in recent times.

According to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, one thousand, one hundred and thirty four Nigerians illegally residing abroad have been deported.

They were deported from Libya, Saudi Arabia, The United Kingdom, Mali, The United States, some member-countries of the European Union and Asia.

Most of the deportees are children, youths and adults under the age of forty five years.

Observers have blamed this trend of deportation on the inability to plan and accommodate the needs of the rising population in many countries of the world.

In a bid to make life better and the search for greener pastures, many have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, sometimes, some have fallen victim of xenophobic attacks and extra-judicial killings.

Some others are languishing in various prisons and slave camps abroad over various offences.

Many migrants who cross international borders resort to long treks across deserts and crossing the sea with floaters leading to countless deaths and missing persons.

To prevent this, there is the need to improve the economic situation of the country this will drastically reduce the quest by Nigerians to seek greener pastures outside the nation.

Government should put in place measures to ensure the protection of Nigerians who engage in legitimate businesses abroad.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should redouble its efforts to reawaken appropriate diplomatic missions in addressing the plight of Nigerians abroad.

The foreign policy of the country needs to be geared toward the provision of adequate protection for its citizens abroad.

Moreover, it is important that Nigerians living abroad to abide by the laws of the countries they are residing in, knowing that violation of the laws attract punishment.

Fawzeeyah Kasheem

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