Counsellor Warns Illegal Immigrants

A former immigration officer in the United Kingdom, Vivian Taiwo Otubanjo has advised Nigerians desperate to travel overseas for greener pastures to forget it and stay in the country to develop it.

Speaking at a workshop organised to create awareness on the dangers of illegal migration at the University of Lagos, Otubanjo explained that illegal migration was not worth the stress “because so many Nigerians have lost their lives in their struggle to travel abroad. I have witnessed several cases. The one I can never forget is a Nigerian who was caught with a briefcase filled with passports for Nigerians in the UK. These passports were used to bring other illegal immigrants into the UK.”

She revealed that it was not only Nigerians that were involved in illegal migration, the Chinese, Mexicans and other African countries were also involved. She also disclosed how she succeeded in deporting illegal migrants back to their countries, including Nigerians.

Otubanjo pleaded with Nigerians to stay back home and make it here and not endanger their lives for greener pastures.

The workshop was organised by the Migration Rehabilitation Awareness Initiative (MRAI), a non govemental organization set up to advise, embrace, rehabilitate and help Nigerians deported and make them know that there is hope for them in Nigeria and that thinking of going back abroad is a wrong decision.

Other objectives of the workshop was creating an awareness about the organisation and identifying the hazards of leaving the county without proper immigration documents.

Speakers at the workshop included Mrs. Jumoke Ayanwale, a former staff of the Nigerian immigration office in UK.

During the programme, a clip of Nigerians living illegaly abroad was shown and they all spoke on how hard and difficult it is to get jobs because employers refused to give jobs to illegal immigrants because of a new law which stipulated a fine of 10,000 pounds by employers who give jobs to illegal immigrants.

In her own speech, Mrs. Ayanwale related her experience of wanting to make fast money in the USA when she travelled, adding that she could barely work for four days before she left the job she got in a meat factory because of too much cold.

—Oguntade Omolabake & Anuoluwa Jegede