Abuja, May 17, 2023 – About 48 per cent of Nigerians who travelled out of the country in the last two years have been forced to return due to hardship.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported this on Wednesday in its report titled “Awareness and Perception of Intending and Returned Migrants on the Dangers of Irregular Migration 2022”.
It said that while hardship was the major reason for their return, deceit, unemployment, no papers, and crime were also major factors.
NBS said the statistics were generated from 2,400 households sampled from six states from each geopolitical zone, namely: Anambra, Edo, Lagos, Benue, Gombe, and Kano.
“Hardship accounted for 48.0 percent as the major reason for the return of migrants, followed by deceit at 20.1 percent, no papers at 16.4 per cent, No Job at 13.8 per cent, while crime was the least with 1.7 percent.”
“A breakdown of the report indicated that “Kano recorded 39.0 percent, which is the highest number of returnees from abroad and 31.8 per cent agreed to detention as the major risk suffered by the returned migrants among others.
“Lagos had its returnees to be 20.7 per cent, Edo recorded 16.7 per cent, Anambra had 11.0 per cent, Gombe stood at 8.7 per cent and Benue had the least percentage of returned migrants with 3.9 percent.”
The report noted that about 90.9 per cent of the migrants returned voluntarily, while 5.9 per cent were forced to return and only 3.2 per cent returned voluntarily with assistance and reintegrated into society.
The NBS also disclosed that 85.8 per cent of households indicated that they do not give out their members as house help as against 14.2 per cent who admitted to giving out their members as house helps.
“The means to earn a living is the most reason why households give out their members as house help as this accounted for 47.7 per cent. 22 per cent revealed that they could not cater for their wards, 14.5 per cent represent parents who can’t afford to send their wards to school, 8.8 per cent represented orphans while 2.1 per cent had no idea they will become house helps.” (GBN)
