Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Abike Dabiri-Erewa says the deaths of 26 Nigerians who drowned in Mediterranean sea is “most unfortunate and tragic”.
She said the deaths of these young Nigerians, mostly women and girls, was avoidable and preventable.
Dabiri-Erewa in a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, lamented for the umpteenth time that promising young Nigerians embarking on such dangerous journeys, in search of greener pastures, end up faced rather with hopelessness, torture, despair and sometimes death, as in this case.
“It is tragic and lamentable. It is just not worth it ultimately. There has to be sustained awareness campaigns on the dangers inherent in such journeys. Migration policies are getting tougher all over”.
She said that President Muhammadu Buhari has been working with the International Organization of Migration (IOM), to bring back voluntary returnees, adding that “even if survived, it is not usually greener out there”.
Dabiri-Erewa therefore, appealed to the Italian authorities to ensure thorough investigations into the deaths and reiterated her appeals to Nigerians to desist from such journeys.
Regrettably, such trips are usually paid for, sometimes as high as $4,500 dollars as inhumane traffickers profit from the illicit business, luring the victims who ignorantly fall for the apparently fake lure of a better life out there.
The boats now being used are getting smaller and more dangerous, and those on the other side are not particularly willing to save them from drowning anymore.
No fewer than 26 Nigerians were reportedly got drowned in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday.
It was alleged that the Nigerians are sexually abused and murdered at the sea.
It was learnt that the Italian prosecutors have begun an investigation into the deaths of the victims, mostly teenagers, though hundreds of other migrants survived.
