By Patricia Idowu
The Chadian government has deported no fewer than 600 irregular Nigerian migrants who were found engaging in street begging across the country.
The deportees, primarily from Borno, Kano, Sokoto, and Kaduna states, had entered Chad without proper documentation. Many had fled Nigeria’s Borno State at the height of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2019, seeking refuge in neighboring Chad and Cameroon.
Speaking to journalists in Maiduguri on Monday, the Director-General of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Muhammed Barkindo, disclosed that the migrants were living in precarious conditions and resorted to begging for survival.
Barkindo explained that SEMA had provided the returnees with logistics support, including food and N10,000 for transportation, to aid their reintegration into their respective states.
“Many of the migrants expressed a strong desire to return home due to the hardships they faced in Chad,” Barkindo noted.
The agency continues to work on profiling the returnees and addressing the challenges posed by the deportation, with plans to assist those in need of further support.
