Austria may deport 1,000 asylum seekers to Nigeria
By Oghogho Obayuwana
ABOUT
1,000 Nigerian asylum seekers in Austria may be deported following
the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by Nigeria and
Austria.
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The
agreement was signed last week in Abuja by Austrian Vice Chancellor
and Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger and Nigerian Foreign Minister
Amb. Olugbenga Ashiru .
The
agreement 'exposes' these persons who are without a clear proof of
Nigerian citizenship, most of them living in Austria for many years and
well integrated (but not accepted as refugees according to the Geneva
convention).
The two countries pledged cooperation in security matters, a joint tackling of terrorism and training of security personnel.
Besides,
the Austrian Ambassador to Nigeria Dr Stefan Scholz extolled the Sultan
of Sokoto Saád Abubakar 111 for his outstanding work in interfaith
cooperation and religious tolerance in Nigeria.
The
Guardian learnt that although most asylum seekers of Nigerian extraction
are already considered economic refugees by the Austrian authorities to
the chagrin of the affected citizens, the fear is rife that should the
religious, ethnic and social situation in Nigeria held to be tense
deepens , Europe might be faced with an even larger number of refugees
from Nigeria.
In the
aftermath of his visit to Nigeria (the first by any Austrian high
government official in the 50 years of bilateral relations between the
two countries), Spindelegger has been quoted by foreign news agencies
including the Austrian Press Agency and Austrian newspapers as saying
that the Abuja agreement shall help to reduce the 'fear' of the
readmitted, because the Nigerian government through the National Agency
for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related matters
(NAPTIP) has pledged to look after them (deported asylum seekers) while
Austrian companies operating in Nigeria have shown their readiness to
offer training (resettlement) programmes in this regard.
Besides,
the signing of the readmission agreement opens a floodgate to handle one
thousand older but open cases of refused asylum seekers in Austria from
Nigeria. Before the agreement, the Federal Government had not been
obliged to take deported refugees back even though last year, of the 14,
416 requests for asylum, 414 were from Nigeria.
Referring
to the principles of the UN convention on the status of refugees (July
1951) and the protocol relating to the status of refugees (January 1967)
and also the principles and provisions of the UN convention against
Transnational Organised Crime and the Protocols thereto (December 2000),
part of the Abuja agreement obtained by The Guardian, stated thus:
"Each contracting party shall admit to its own territory, at the request
of the other contracting party, any person who is not or is no longer
eligible to enter or to reside in the territory of the requesting
contracting party, when it has been shown in accordance with Article 111
or is shown through the identification procedure outlined in Article
1V, that holds a valid internationally accepted travel document
according to Article 111... The same may apply to persons who acquired a
travel document by the contracting party."
The
preamble to the agreement, however, stated clearly that the treaty was
being made based on the friendly relations between the two states and
people willing to facilitate the repatriation of citizens of one
contracting party irregularly residing in the territory of the other
contracting party as well as their rehabilitation and to treat such
persons in a manner which would dignify and guarantee their human rights
and fundamental freedoms.
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