Since the last British general election, the UK government has stepped up its anti-immigration stance with a fierce xenophobic agenda aimed at purging the country of non-natives. As a result, about 29,000 Nigerians face deportation from the UK having been labelled illegal immigrants.
Nigeria's high commission in the UK has already protested the move and listed four conditions which must be met before it can support the measure. Now, the House of Representatives has waded into the matter too, urging the committee to if necessary, summon the British high commissioner to Nigeria to explain the reasons behind the planned mass deportation.
House members reached the resolutions following a motion bothering on matters of urgent public importance brought by Hon Rita Orji (Lagos, PDP), drawing attention to the dangers of the proposed deportation. Her motion which called on the government of the UK to stay action on the deportation pending further consultation with the government of Nigeria was referred to the House committee on diaspora and foreign affairs for further action.
Hon Orji said: “There are 2m registered Nigerians who are citizens of the UK, so we need to find out if these 29,000 people to be deported are part of the registered Nigerians living in the United Kingdom. It’s possible that many of the people are not even Nigerians as they could be other African nationals who went to the United Kingdom through Nigeria and are being seen as Nigerians based on their point of origin.
“We now have to look at section 19 of the constitution which deals with foreign policy initiative and focus on seeing how we can resolve this matter diplomatically or reciprocate this unfriendly and malicious legislation targeted at Nigerians in the United Kingdom."
Minority leader Hon Leo Ogor in his contribution, urged the House to thread with caution so as not to escalate a brewing diplomatic row between both countries. He added that the situation requires that the House engages in serious high level consultation and negotiations to get the full details of what is going on.
“I believe that this is the time the committee should move into action to liaise with the foreign affairs ministry and the British high commission with a view to working out ways of salvaging the situation. Having 29,000 fully established people striped of their livelihood, belongings and removed from their comfort zones and dumped on another society is quite a dangerous development and I urge us to get the details and negotiate a way out,” Hon Ogor added.
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