Renewed intelligence and surveillance operations by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) resulted in the repatriation of over 100, 000 irregular migrants in the last one year, investigation by New Telegraph has revealed.
Apart from deploying eborder solutions, the Service is said to have also intensified surveillance patrols across the country’s major land borders, in its determination to enhance national security. Highly-placed security sources, who spoke in confidence with this newspaper, noted that the foreign nationals were staying in the country without valid papers.
Though the Federal Government had given a window of 90 days for the aforementioned category of expatriates to stay, it was discovered that they exceeded the grace period, leading to their arrests, profiling and subsequent repatriation.
Most of the irregular migrants are Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) citizens, while others are non-citizens. It was further gathered that the deployment of electronic technology enables the organisation to monitor activities across strategic borders real time. Speaking in confidence, one of the sources said:
“To answer your question, those of them that come in and stay in the country without papers, are being taken into custody, profiled for eventual repatriation.
“What the NIS has done between 2024 and 2025 is that over 100, 000 people (irregular immigrants) have been repatriated, including nonECOWAS citizens.
“For clarity sake, most of those repatriated are ECOWAS citizens, who were found to have stayed beyond the usual and permitted number of days to stay in the country.
“If you come into the country as ECOWAS citizen, you can come to any of the member-states, stay up to like 90 days, then you are expected to go back. “But, if you are staying beyond 90 days, you are expected to register in that country; that you want to be staying there.
“So, that is what the rule book says. So, when some of them come, they don’t want to go back. Some of them were lured into the country by these people”.
Speaking in similar vein, another source hinted: “In order to enhance border operations in almost all our border posts the current NIS under the leadership of CGIS Kemi Nandap, has employed and leveraged on technology; e-border solutions have been deployed.
“Like e-passport, e-border solution is electronic-based. It helps in the monitoring and surveillance of the nation’s borders with the use of technology.
“What this means is that it enables the NIS to engage in 24 hours surveillance of Nigeria’s borders.
“They are deployed in almost all of the nation’s border posts, and this unprecedented development helps to enhance the operations of humans; speaking about border operatives.”
