3,500 illegal Nigerian immigrants disappears in Morocco

By Lucky Onoriode George

No fewer than 3, 500 illegal Nigerian immigrants have disappeared in Morocco. This figure, according to recent information from the Nigerian Embassy in Rabat, was part of the 5, 000 Nigerians that disappeared from the camp where they were kept by the authority last year "travelafricanews.com" can authoritatively report.

These “Nigerians” were part of illegal immigrants from different countries awaiting deportation from the North African country, but suddenly disappeared.

Sources at the Nigerian Embassy in Morocco confirmed this to our editor, who was in Morocco on the trail of illegal immigrants who choose to reach Europe through dangerous options by travelling for months to get to Melilla and Ceuta, both Spanish territory on the North African side of the Mediterranean Sea from where they will enter any of the Schengen countries.

Sources said the illegal immigrants had voluntarily registered with the Nigerian embassy   for
repatriation back home having been stranded for a long time. "Having concluded arrangement with National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to return these people back home, the Moroccan authority backed out of this arrangement", the Embassy sources stated.

Investigations revealed that the immigrants were taken into the desert by the Moroccan Gendarme, where they were expected to die. Sources who spoke to "travelafricanews.com" said
the Moroccan authority is taking tough stance against illegal Nigerian immigrants because of Nigerian government recognition of the Algeria-based Polisario fighting for self rule Western Sahara. Morocco is gradually becoming a receiving point. "A lot of Nigerians use here which is creating problems.

Nigerians are not only stranded here, they create problems for the authority, with many of them dying and the survivors getting involved in dangerous act," our source said. Meanwhile, very little has been done by parents and government back in Nigeria to discourage the immigrants from undertaking this dangerous trip organised by middlemen who promise them prosperity thus luring many innocent young men into undertaking the dangerous journey.

As last year, there were about 81 Nigerians living legally in Morocco, out which 56 were students
studying on scholarship under the Morocco-Nigeria Bilateral Education Agreement (BEA)