A Nigerian, Mr Ekene, currently detained in a deportation camp in India, has alleged that delays in obtaining travel documents and the slow processing of deportation cases are keeping him and more than 2,000 other Nigerians stranded at the facility.
Ekene made the allegation during a monitored online interview with Vanguard, days after the Chairman/CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, NiDCOM, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the Indian government had previously granted a targeted amnesty to undocumented Nigerian migrants.
Dabiri-Erewa, responding to television personality Rufai Oseni, said the amnesty commenced on May 1, 2025, for an initial six months and was subsequently extended by three months following negotiations by Nigeria’s High Commissioner to India.
She said no fewer than 4,000 Nigerians had returned to Nigeria under the programme without legal or administrative penalties.
According to her, Ekene and some others failed to regularise their status or leave during the amnesty period and were subsequently arrested and detained in a deportation camp.
However, Ekene, who said he was part of a seven-man committee that met with officials of the Nigerian mission when they visited the camp, offered a different account of the immediate challenge confronting the detainees.
According to him, the central issue is not simply whether an amnesty exists, but whether the necessary processes, particularly the issuance of travel documents, are completed to enable detainees to leave.
“Amnesty or no amnesty is not the problem. The problem here is that people are not moving,” Ekene said.
He explained that some detainees had been told that those brought into the camp from 2024 up to December 1, 2025, were eligible to leave without paying penalties under the amnesty arrangement.
He said three people had already left under the arrangement but maintained that many others remained stranded because they lacked the documents required to travel.
“Before you travel, you need to get your travel documents. So, if I don’t get my travel documents, how will I travel?” he asked.
Ekene said Nigerian officials explained to the detainees that they could not directly collect their National Identification Numbers, NINs, and other information because they were in the custody of the Indian authorities.
He said the Indian authorities were expected to provide the necessary information to the Nigerian mission, which would then issue travel documents and return them to the Indian authorities.
The detainee appealed to Nigerian officials to visit the camp regularly and monitor the process.
According to him, the physical presence of Nigerian officials was necessary because detainees found it difficult to get the Indian authorities to respond to their complaints.
“If you are not coming here, how can we move?” he asked.
‘16 Nigerians stopped after booking flights.’
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