Abuja (Nigeria) – Nigeria and the United Kingdom has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on immigration on Wednesday.
Nigeria’s minister of Interior Abdulrahman Dambazau, said the development was a review of an initial bilateral agreement signed in 2005 between both countries on return of illegal immigrants, as well as legal migrants who had overstayed their visas.
Statement by the ministry’s director of press Willie Bassey, noted that the minister explained that; the review was necessitated as a result of the new challenges that emerged such as the difficulties in ascertaining the correct nationalities of some immigrants; pointing out that, the agreement signed would involve the use of biometric and biographic data for proper profiling of nationalities of migrants.
Speaking earlier, leader of the UK delegation and Minister of State for Immigration, Robert Goodwill MP, stressed the importance of preventing immigration abuse by those who enter and leave the UK.
He however commended the Minister of Interior for driving the process, which culminated in signing of the MoU.
Also speaking, Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Muhammad Babandede, said innovations were introduced to make the Nigerian passport acceptable globally by making it machine-readable.