Another batch of 50 deported persons were received by officers of the Nigerian Immigration service at the Lagos Cargo Airport on Tuesday. This operation was a joint EU deportation enforcement hosted by Germany in cooperation with Spain, Austria and Belgium. Germany was as usual responsible for 37 of the enforced deportation. This batch of deportation is the highest single deportation so far in the past three years.
At this peak of ongoing anti-migrants debate with the increasingly restrictive and inhuman migration policies that are meant to criminalize and facilitate the massive deportation agenda in Europe, the tendency for more vulnerability for migrants, racist discrimination and stereotype, homelessness and massive violation of migrants right is actually becoming an absolute reality.
With focus on the routine monthly deportation enforcement and the lack of government responsibility and response to trending reports of massive violence and abuses associated with the deportation enforcement process, there should be a cause for worry from the Nigerian diaspora community in Germany as the new regulations especially for the German so-called tolerated asylum seekers (Duldung holders) will be alarming.
For close to two decades now, Nigeria has always taken the top lead as major deportation destination from Germany. Aside the physical violence and abuses associated with the deportation enforcement, quite a huge number of the deported persons and even children are during the course of the deportation having valid and pending cases in court or me. A lot of these persons have expert medical certification that confirms them as having severe health conditions for whish they are undergoing critical medical attention and as such availing them the right for protection under both German and International Law. Germanys arrogance and deliberate attempt to violate even its own legal framework to enforce deportations should be a cause for concern and scandal.
In the many past six years of the DERS intervention at the Airport, we have always been confronted with cases of Children with special needs, persons with critical physical disability and mental health conditions etc. A number of the deported persons are traumatized from the brutality in the cause of the deportation enforcement and then abandoned at the Airport gate without any form of of support even first aid at the least.
The December 17, 2025 deportation experience of a Nigerian family with valid residence permit is a clear signal for Germanys deportation desperation. The single mother was picked up with her kids after midnight and deported even with a convincing proof about her residence card being available at the local foreign office. We have also followed up a case of a Nigerian who was also deported even when there had been a last minute court decision to stop his deportation.
The fact that the Nigerian government will continue to turn blind eyes on this issue does leave our Airport porous as Germany deportation clearing house for black Africans. It is also sad to note that there is not even a local structure to monitor and report these deportation arrivals, such that prompt actions could be taken when the need arises. On the German side, every single step is documented from the arrest to the final arrival for the German interest. Nigeria is appears to be one country where anyone arriving onboard charter deportation flights could be dumped as the deportation machine is usually very fast with the takeoff timing before the commencement of the usual profiling of the deported persons by the immigration Authorities.
We are aware of an upcoming meeting so-called “High-level expert dialogue on voluntary return to Nigeria”. The event will brings together key players from the German deportation regime (administration, politics, counseling, reintegration, psycho-social support and international cooperation). The aim is to jointly analyze possible factors that will facilitate sustainable and massive deportation approach to Nigeria.
The head of the Nigerian delegation will as an ex-diplomat to Switzerland give an insight on how she had successfully organized the deportation of several hundred of Nigerians alongside her current work in Nigeria.
We denounce any attempt to engage in deportation collaboration with the German state otheriwse consent to alternative reproduction of so-called voluntary returns bait. We demand the Nigerian delegations to speak in favour of massive and unconditional regularization and respect for Nigerians and other migrants irrespective of their status in Germany.
For more info. (Email: ders@refugees4refugees.org / Wazapp.: +234.817.346.3700)