They left the shores of Nigeria in search of greener pastures with very high expectations but returned home empty handed. That was the story of 90 Nigerians who were repatriated from Tunisia. The deportees who arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos on Tuesday, wore mournful looks as they re-lived the sad tales of their sojourn in the North African country. The repatriation was facilitated by the International Organisation for Migration, IOM, with the support of the Tunisian government.

One of the returnees who identified herself as Miss Success Smart, 15, said she left Nigeria about two years ago when her hope of becoming an apprentice hair dresser was dashed. The teenager explained that she embarked on the tedious journey to Tunisia through the Libyan route when her parents refused to sign an agreement with the salon operator where she had enrolled as an apprentice. ‘’I received favour from somebody who offered to take me to Tunisia. We were there until recently when things became very difficult for her and she had to return to Nigeria,’’ Success said

For Miss Blessing Ogbabolo, 17, the story is slightly different. She claimed that her father died when she was only three years. Her elder brother was the one who took her to Tunisia. Blessing said she had on several occasions pleaded with her brother to allow her return to Nigeria, but all these pleas fell on deaf ears. “I was fed up with the difficult conditions out there and when the opportunity of returning to Nigeria free of charge came, I jumped at the offer,” she said.

Asked about her brother, Blessing said she lost contact with him when she made up her mind to return home. A visibly frustrated Blessing noted that it would take only divine intervention for her to put the sad experiences behind her.’’I pray that God will help me to forge ahead after my frustrating experience overseas,’’ she submitted.

Another deportee who gave his names as Emmanuel Oduoba, vowed never to nurse the idea of travelling abroad again. He passionately appealed to Nigerian youths to avoid any temptation to travel out of Nigeria because all the sweet stories of hitting the jackpot are bags of lies. He urged Nigerian leaders to be most focused and to put in place measures that would uplift the living conditions of the citizenry.Although the returnees debunked stories of any crisis in Tunisia, they maintained that there is no place like home.

Vanguard Metro learnt that officials of the National Agency for Protection and Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, have taken over the case of the teenagers. They would be reoriented and later rehabilitated. The returnees were received and screened by different government agencies like the Nigerian Immigration Service, the Police, NAPTIP and other stakeholders, ostensibly to ascertain their nationalities.Transport allowances were later given to them to facilitate their journeys to their respective states.

A breakdown of the 90 returnees shows that two of them are infants, aged five and 14 months. A further breakdown shows that 12 are teenagers, 13 of them are young ladies while the remaining 61 are young men. Edo State has the highest number of 77 returnees, while Delta State had eight. The remaining six hail from Imo, Lagos, Kano and Plateau states. -

culled from Vanguard

No place like home they say.

why are they deporting teenagers without their parents? where are these teens supposed to go when they get to Nigeria? who will care for them?

Shey na TUNISIA ur mate dey qo...



Qo to UK & come tell me no place lyk home...

Hmm, end tym travels...

Emmanuel Oduoba, vowed never to nurse the idea of travelling abroad again. He passionately appealed to Nigerian youths to avoid any temptation to travel out of Nigeria because all the sweet stories of hitting the jackpot are bags of lies.

This is very true. Even the so called countries that are considered as conducive environment to make it in life are no longer rosy these days. One thing is that when people don't return to Nigeria on time, we continue to assume that all is well with them when actually they are only ashamed to come back home without anything to show for it.

Singing *U are welcome in d name of the lord*

hmmm... Sorrowful mystery.

Tunisia of all places?

Hope the ones in hell won't be deported for misconduct.

Their body go soon tell dem within the next 6months.

Dats wat desperation can cause.

Shame on our leaders.

And why are they all claiming to be teenagers hahaha... Naija

How many nairalander dey deport. Una better talk tru

No place like home, yes I agree.

You go Tunisia you talk say make people no dream of travelling abroad. Okay if they give you visa to go USA or Dubai or Canada, shey you go reject am?


I laugh in German.

Oun oju wa l'oju ri. Eni nwa'fa n w'ofo.

REALITY101: And why are they all claiming to be teenagers hahaha... Naija

I doubt if you went to high school. Show me where in the article they claimed to be all teenagers.

Okay, so of all countries na Tunisia u see go. No b your mate be stoyaway boy wey won go America...smh 4 u

After securing a permanent resident card along with a good job in either US or UK, come back hear and say no place like home again mek I hear. How can you enter a foreign country through the window and expect to be comfortable overnight. They never cater for their citizens finish, e come be illegal immigrants

Which Ordeal? shey Nigeria no good? God punish the devil.

Where z Abu Mickey come n collect ur patriots.they hav sure made us Proud.Edo i Hail

As long as you are an illegal immigrant (which most of them are), you'll always find it difficult. Why there's no place like home in your home country is that you have an established family or friends that will at least feed you before your hustles click. You also don't have to be afraid of police arresting you and immigration deporting you.

True...no place like home.

Atleast the experience will make them realise that Jona is an angel

kwara auto: No place like home they say.

,na only people wey dem deport dey say no place like home.

It's no news. Nigerians are being deported nationally and internationally. Fresh air tins

From the narrations in this news, those returning Nigerians didn't suffer as they v said. Cos them no talk wetin dem dey do for Tunisia.
How you go take travel to a land where you v nothing to do there.
Smh for some travelling hustlers.