President Muhammadu Buhari has appended to an agreement that will see the United Kingdom deport criminals of Nigerian origin back to Nigeria.
According to the UK’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel, the measure is in line with Britain’s Brexit agenda to reclaim their country from illegal immigrants.
“Our new landmark agreement with Nigeria will increase the deportation of dangerous foreign criminals to make our streets and country safer and take the fight to the criminal people smugglers together to tackle illegal migration,” Patel said in a tweet on Thursday.
On Thursday, Forbes reported that the first batch of deportees had left the UK for Nigeria and Ghana. According to Forbes, 13 Nigerians were deported to Lagos, and the flight then carried on to Ghana, where eight Ghanaians landed.
Official estimates place the number of foreign criminals in UK prisons at 9,815.
In Britain’s ‘New Plan for Immigration’, published in March, the Boris Johnson-led government said Britain had “taken back control of our legal immigration system by ending free movement and introducing a new points-based immigration system.”
“The UK now decides who comes to our country based on the skills people have to offer, not where their passport is from,” the policy document said.
