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Massive deportation of Nigerians, from foreign countries, is now commonplace. While the reason is somewhat complex, one would try to provide a straight forward explanation. In the seventies and eighties, citizens of most industrialized countries were very indifferent about immigration. They did not see immigrants as threats, instead, they saw them as help which is why most did not hesitate to engage their services domestically or work with them in all facets of life. Most immigrants, legal or illegal, went about their businesses in those nations, worked, went to school, raised families and basically did everything that citizens could. With time, the undying activism of people who attributed high crimes, in their neighborhoods and job losses, to unchecked immigration, began to gain traction. As global economic situation sputtered and jobs truly became scarce in these nations, and as statistics of crimes committed by immigrants began an upward swing, widespread anti-immigration sentiments set in. Citizens began to clamor for the curbing of legal and illegal immigration. Security agents seized the opportunity, presented by heightened anti-immigration sentiments, to massively clamp down on illegal immigrants in the work place, in schools, in private homes and even in churches. Their efforts usually culminated in the deportation of the immigrants and this is why we are seeing increased deportation to Nigeria.

In nations where illegal immigrants are still seen as human beings that have rights, those apprehended are allowed due process. They are arraigned before immigration judges for adjudication of their cases. Those found guilty of immigration and criminal offences, like possessing expired visas, committing crimes or working without work permits are deported. Surprisingly, there are nations that do not believe that illegal immigrants have rights. In those nations, illegal immigrants or immigrants that committed offences are usually whisked away from wherever they are caught and literally deported straight to their home countries. The latter scenario creates a situation where the immigrants depart their host countries with just the clothes they have on their backs, leaving behind any belongings, like money, property and other ephemeral paraphernalia, they may have accumulated over the years.

In the past 3-months alone, more than 3,000 Nigerians have been deported to the country [Guardian, October 23, 2009] . When they touch down on the shores of Nigeria, they are all lumped together and given the name "deportees". Of course, most Nigerians believe that to be deported from a foreign nation, one must have committed an egregious and criminal offence. The resultant effect is that they see and treat all deportees as hardcore criminals without regard to the fact that many are merely people who overstayed their visas or accepted employment without work permits. Immigration officials in Nigeria treat all the deportees like people with communicable diseases. Some of their friends and families do not treat them any better because they feel embarrassed by their deportation. The irony here is that some of these relatives and friends may have been the recipients of money, via Western Union, from these deportees when the going was still good!

This article is not meant to condone any form of law breaking whether it is overstaying one's visa, working without work permit or entering any foreign country without the right papers. One simply wants to point out the difference between criminal deportees, that is those that committed crimes like fraud, robbery, murder and non-criminal deportees like those that merely overstayed their visas or worked without papers. Nigerian immigration officials have to begin to clearly differentiate between these two groups and display some sympathy for non-criminal deportees who simply left the nation in financial desperation. Being deported from a country where one has found succor for many years, in itself, is traumatic. But being given the cold shoulder by immigration officials, their friends and relatives, when they arrive their native land, further exacerbates their plight and might just bother on unconscionable.

Non-criminal deportees should first be debriefed, when they arrive, to determine what brought about their deportation. Those with academic qualifications should be provided with employment leads, and those proficient in any trades and want to engage in businesses, should be provided with leads regarding small business loans. It might be tempting to say that the government should not care, after all they left the country of their own volition. However, anytime you add more jobless citizens into an already teeming jobless population, the enabling environment for all types of crime is being created. The reader should remember that some of the deportees are whisked away from their host nations with just the clothes on their backs and never have the opportunity to collect their belongings and money. Consequently, they cannot hit the ground running without some type of hand up. Just sending them off into towns and cities, where some will more than get jeers and embarrassing looks, instead of sympathy, is not the best line of action.

Some might wonder why this writer is suggesting government intervention in helping to resettle non-criminal deportees. The answer is simple: the continued exodus of Nigerians to other countries, where they feel that life might just be better, is the result of the untenable situation in the country where unemployment has been in double digits for a long time, where poverty is endemic and procurement of small business loans elusive. In the spirit of the fact that government action or inaction is partly to blame for all these maladies, it is only fitting that the same government should lend a helping hand to deportees who did NOT commit criminal offences in their host countries.

Nigerian legislature is now trying to work on a bill to do something about the increased case of Nigerians leaving the country. They are talking about providing employment. That is a good step although one would wonder why this has not been done before now. There are many university graduates with degrees in very good courses who are still looking for jobs. I just read about how young men and women queue up at various embassies in Nigeria to seek visas to travel to other countries. These people are not trying to leave because they hate to behold the faces of their friends and families in Nigeria. They want to leave because they cannot find jobs in their land of birth. They queue up in front of embassies in Nigeria as early as 4:00AM, under rain and shine, hoping to get visas to get out of the country. It has even been reported that Nigerians are top on the list of those seeking asylum worldwide. There is something wrong with that picture and needs to be corrected.

Finally, whatever we do, we must stop treating all deportees like criminals. We should always remember why they left in the first place.

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