On Monday, authorities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia cancelled the visa of 264 Nigerians who had arrived the middle eastern country aboard an Air Peace airplane.
It was reported that most of the Nigerians on the flight had travelled to the country for lesser Hajj.
The passengers, who had boarded the plane on Sunday night in Kano, Nigeria, landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday morning only to find out that their visas had been cancelled.
The authorities were said to have reduced the number of passengers that would be returned to Nigeria from 264 to 177 when the Nigerian embassy in Saudi Arabia waded in on the matter.
The incident has sparked reactions from Nigerians with many criticising the Saudi authorities for the action they took. Ironically, the incident happened at a time Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, was attending the Saudi-Africa summit in the country to attract foreign direct investment.
Saudi Arabia is yet to offer an explanation on why all the passengers who were onboard the plane were denied entry.
This, however, is not the first time Nigeria and Nigerians have been subjected to unfriendly treatments abroad.
Here are three other instances.
1. VACCINATION CERTIFICATE SPAT WITH SOUTH AFRICA (2012)
On March 2, 2012, South Africa and Nigeria were embroiled in a diplomatic spat after the former deported 125 Nigerians.
The Nigerians, who had just arrived South Africa via Johannesburg Airport, were sent back after it was alleged that their yellow fever vaccination certificates were fake.
The action saw Olugbenga Ashiru, the then Nigerian foreign minister, respond in kind as 84 South Africans were deported from Nigeria 48 hours after the vaccination certificate incident happened.
After deporting the 84 South Africans, Ashiru also hinted at making sure South African companies in Nigeria like MTN, Shoprite, Multichoice and Standard Bank were shut down.
Ten days after, South Africa apologised for the deportation incident, deeming it “regrettable”.
Ibrahim Ibrahim, the then South African deputy foreign minister, said the situation could have been better handled and that the 125 Nigerians should not have been deported.
2. NIGERIAN DIPLOMATS BEATEN BLACK AND BLUE
On August 7, 2021, Abdulrahman Ibrahim, a Nigerian diplomat in Jakarta, Indonesia, was physically assaulted by some immigration officials in the Asian country.
Ibrahim, a senior diplomat working at the Nigerian embassy, had gone shopping for his family when four immigration officers who had laid siege to his apartment arrested him and demanded for his travel papers.
Ibrahim told the officers that he was a diplomat and that he needed no visa to travel.
Despite showing the immigration officers his diplomatic ID, the officers asked him to follow them to their office.
When Ibrahim discovered he was being taken away in a vehicle that had a tinted glass and not an official car, he felt uncomfortable and decided to raise the alarm by calling the attention of passers-by to what was happening.
His actions infuriated the officers who then assaulted and handcuffed him.
The government of Indonesia would later apologise to Nigeria for the assault carried out by the immigration officers.
3. NIGERIANS UNDER 40 DENIED ENTRY IN UAE (2022)
On August 31, 2022, a viral video of close to 20 Nigerians stranded at the Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) surfaced on social media.
The stranded Nigerians had had their passports seized by the authorities before the video was recorded.
The development elicited reactions on various social media platforms, many Nigerians criticising the treatment of their compatriots abroad.
Francisca Omayuli, the then spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, later issued a statement that the stranded Nigerians were denied entry “because they had not travelled to the UAE with appropriate visas”.
“The general public is invited to note and be guided that the Government of the UAE has introduced a new visa regime and has stopped issuing tourist visas to persons under the age of 40 years, except for those applying for family visas,” Omayuli said.
“It is, therefore, instructive for prospective visa applicants to indicate clearly their visa preferences without any ambiguity and also respect the immigration laws of other countries so as to avoid unwarranted treatments.”
The incident led to many Nigerians criticising the federal government for not doing enough to protect its citizens abroad.
In September 2023, Ajuri Ngelale, the spokesperson to the president, claimed the visa ban on Nigerian travellers had been lifted by the UAE, but the middle eastern country later denied the claim.
