Nigerians languishing in prisons abroad is becoming embarrassing...Please Read!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
The number of Nigerians languishing in prisons abroad is becoming embarrassing, what with the criticisms that government is not doing enough about the issue. SAMUEL AWOYINFA reports
For many Nigerians, travelling abroad in search of the ‘good life’ is the ultimate goal. Nothing else matters to them. But while some follow the laid-down procedures for obtaining the required documents, so many others settle for illegal arrangements, which normally end in lamentation.
For those in the latter category, they employ all manner of pranks to beat immigration laws of their host countries, and ultimately regret their action.
Some who attempt to enter Europe through the desert route turn themselves to Tuareg wanderers in the process. They trek from Mali to Libya, passing through Egypt and other African countries, with the hope of ultimately crossing over to Spain by sea.
Some are lucky to have achieved their aim, but many are not so lucky, as they perish in the desert.
Many who are able to beat all odds have the onerous task of evading their host countries’ law enforcement agents and immigration officials.
A United Kingdom-based immigration lawyer, Mr. Fola Rahman, once shocked his listeners when he revealed that no fewer than 20,000 Nigerians were languishing in various prisons and detention centres across Europe for immigration offences.
Rahman, who was the guest speaker during the Nigeria Union of Journalists Guest Forum held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, said many of those in prisons include pregnant women, the aged and youths.
“We have a lot of Nigerians abroad today that are stranded. They don’t have right documentations. Many are in prison and their parents don’t know they are in prison. We have more than 20,000 and if you look at it that way, it’s serious.”
Many of these travellers do not obtain the right advice before embarking on a search for the elusive good life, and they end up frustrated, and resorting to illegal means to survive, Rahman said.
As at February, 500 Nigerians were in jails across India and another 1,000 in Chinese prisons.
Over 300 Nigerians are said to be serving various jail terms in Indonesian prisons for peddling hard drugs, while 16 of them are on death row.
On the condemned 16, the Senate President, David Mark has bad news for them — “they are on their own, as their offences are drugs-related,” he was quoted to have said.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Itse Sagay, also shares this view. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Human Rights Commission said they would ensure that the 16 Nigerians receive fair treatment.
In January 2007, a 21-year-old Nigerian, Iwuchukwu Amara Tochi, was hanged in Singapore for drug smuggling, despite pleas from the Nigerian Government, the United Nations and international human rights groups to spare his life.
During the visit of United Kingdom’s Minister of Immigration, Damian Green, to Nigeria last year, he said there were about 6,000 Nigerians incarcerated in various prison facilities in the UK.
The Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora Affairs, Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, during a fact-finding mission to Brazil, returned with a chilling story of 456 Nigerians being held in various prisons across the South-American country.
Among these, Dabiri-Erewa said, were a 72-year-old grandmother, Fausat Aosede, 13 women and 443 other Nigerians, who were being held for drug-related offences.
In an earlier interview, Dabiri-Erewa said about 100 Nigerians were also in detention in Ukraine for various offences, adding that the country had called on Nigeria for their repatriation, which has yet to be effected.
She added that Brazil had invited Nigeria to sign a repatriation treaty with it since 2009, but the Nigerian Government has yet to respond, underscoring its perceived lackadaisical attitude towards protecting the rights of its citizens.
According to her, these Nigerians may stay longer in jail because Nigeria does not have a repatriation agreement with Brazil. The latter sent a document to facilitate the agreement in 2009 but is still awaiting a response from Nigeria.
Observers believe that Nigerians are also being held in other prisons in the United States of America, Indonesia, Italy, Germany, Spain, as well as other African countries.
While some have been executed for drug trafficking in Arab and Asian countries, others are on death row for the same offence.
But some have argued that many Nigerians are fleeing the country in droves because of leadership failure. They cite the huge youth unemployment as one reason why many flee the country.
However, some eminent Nigerians argue that those are not enough reasons to resort to illegalities.
Dabiri-Erewa expresses her worries over the issue on Wednesday, explaining that Nigerians in foreign prisons can be categorised into two: those who committed crime and these in jail for racial reasons.
Perhaps stating official position, she says that whoever committed crime should face the consequences, and that the concern and worry of her committee tilt more in the direction of those who are victims of racial prejudice. According to her, those in this group are not usually tried in court, nor are they given lawyers to defend themselves.
She recalls a visit of a six-man delegation to Indonesia in company with a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Madueke, where they pleaded on behalf of some Nigerians being held for drug trafficking. The mission failed miserably, Dabiri-Erewa explained.
Expressing her frustration, she states, “Why should Nigerians involve themselves in drug trafficking when they know that in countries like Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, it attracts death sentence?”
Dabiri-Erewa shares a story of how Nigerians who were caught for immigration offences such as over-staying at the expiration of their visas in China were treated: “those who are caught are sent to prison, while a fine of $5,000 is imposed on each of them. Since it is difficult for someone in prison to raise such a fine, many of them end up dying in prison without trace, many Nigerians on illegal stay usually change their names in the bid to evade identification by security agents.”
A Lagos-based lawyer, Mr. Kingsley Omose, reasons that wherever Nigerians find themselves, they must obey the laws of that land and forget what obtains in their own country. He says many Nigerians in foreign countries still think they are in Nigeria where they can bribe their way through.
However, he chides the Federal Government for not being proactive enough in the matter concerning Nigerians in foreign prisons. He calls for the establishment of a support structure in Nigerian embassies to take up matters concerning Nigerians who are in conflict with the laws of their host countries.
With the seriousness the developed countries attach to the welfare of their citizens, Omose says anytime any of those citizens is arrested for any offence overseas, officials from their embassies follow up on them.
“They follow up on them right from the police station to the courts. They ensure that the citizen gets fair treatment. Nigerians abroad don’t get this kind of treatment. Many Nigerian ambassadors do not even know the number of their countrymen living in their host countries,” he states.
Omose also suggests that the government should adopt exchange of prisoners, where possible, to get many Nigerians out of foreign jails for repatriation to their home countries where they can serve their prison terms.
A lecturer and a former head of Psychiatry Department, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Osogbo campus, Dr. Adeoye Oyewole, notes that there are basic things to know before travelling abroad.
First, he says travellers must have valid travel documents. Second, if they are relocating, they must be ready to experience what he calls “adjustment — or psychological disorder.”
Oyewole adds that many of those who are desperate to travel out have little regard for obtaining valid documents, but would rather patronise vendors of counterfeit documents.
“I heard a case of a Nigerian who was released from prison and his bond documentation was faulty. When security agents came for him at his residence, he jumped down from a high rise building and died instantly,” he says.
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