Britain has struck a new return agreement with Nigeria, designed to ease the return of rejected Nigerian migrants with no right to remain in the UK. At the heart of the deal, Nigeria pledged to accept UK identification documents of people with no right to be in the UK.
Nigeria has agreed to recognize British documents in deportation and returns cases, which means that the removal of Nigerian nationals not allowed to be in the UK can be sped up.
Until now, British authorities had to wait for emergency travel documents to be issued for people without passports before they could proceed with removals; but moving forward, UK issued identification documents — known as UK letters — will equally be accepted by Nigerian authorities to establish the identity of people who are to be returned to Nigeria.
This will primarily affect people who overstay their visas as well as Nigerian criminals and failed asylum seekers.
The deal was signed by UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and her Nigerian counterpart, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo during Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's state visit to the UK earlier this week, which was the first state visit by a Nigerian leader to the UK in 37 years.
Though a main theme of the visit was to secure more trade investment into Nigeria, many other policy issues — including migration — were highlighted on the sidelines of the diplomatic trip.
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Cracking down on illegal entries together
The two ministers also signed further deals relating to documentation issues affecting British immigration authorities; in order to further crack down on criminal gangs abusing visa routes, a new standardized document checking system will be introduced on both sides to verify applications.
The agreement between the UK and Nigeria comes after the discovery of a number of cases involving fake job sponsorships as well as forged employment or financial records, the Home Office said.
Sham marriages have also been on the rise as a means for people to gain access to the UK illegally, due to documentation and verification challenges in this area.
Nigeria also pledged that it would review its laws to ensure that the toughest possible sentences were given to immigration offenders.
The Home Office commented that annual return rates to Nigeria had nearly doubled to 1,150 cases.
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Major Nigerian diaspora in Britain
UK minister for border security and asylum, Alex Norris, said the bilateral agreement was another step in a series of reforms aimed at removing people from the UK who had no right to be there:
"Nigeria is a key partner in our work to tackle illegal migration, as the UK's largest African visa market and home to thousands of Nigerians who have built their lives here," Norris told reporters.
A UK government spokesperson further added that the two nations had also agreed to work more closely together on defense and security issues in response to a rise in transnational crime and terrorism.
Confusion online about scope of UK-Nigeria deal
Since the deal was signed, however, a spokesperson for Tinubu highlighted that it would only apply to Nigerian nationals who were in the UK illegally and not to people who may have formerly resided in Nigeria but do not have citizenship of Nigeria.
The "Nigerian government is not taking back non-Nigerians. The UK government is not compelling Nigeria to take those who are not our citizens," presidential spokesman Temitope Ajayi explained.
This clarification came after there had been some alleged misinformation online about Nigeria volunteering to take in non-Nigerians as part of the deal.