Illegal migrants from Nigeria, account for 21 per cent of the total 171, 299 immigrants that braved the Mediterranean odds to arrive Italy in 2016.

Figures from the Italian Interior Ministry estimated the record of Nigerian arrivals at 36,000, with most of them claiming they were running away from Boko Haram insurgency or Niger Delta crisis.

The estimate was as at November 2016.

The Nigerian government was briefed by Italian authorities on this development late last year.

Sources said the Nigerian government regarded the high number of Nigerians seeking asylum abroad as ”mind boggling and embarrassing”.

Government is of the view that only a few of the migrants could genuinely claim they were fleeing from Boko Haram insurgency and Niger Delta crisis.

“Most Nigerian migrants pictured in this milieu, are motivated by economic and pecuniary interests,” said a spokesman for Babachir David Lawal, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation

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Them no even plenty, i ben they think say na 1million plus

3 of my friends were among but me I must travel with plane risking my life is not worth it