Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has said over 956 Nigerians have been evacuated from Libya, in the first quarter of 2025 alone, courtesy of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Nigeria and the National Commission for Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons Offices (NCRMI).

This is contained in a statement signed by the Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit (NiDCOM), Abuja, Abdur-Rahman Balogun.

According to the statement, the breakdown shows that 683 of them were females, 132 males, 87 children and 54 infants.

The returnees were brought back home in six tranches from January to March 2025.

The six trips included 152 on January 28; 145,180 and 159 on February 11, 19 and 25 respectively, while 144 and 176 came in on March 4 and 18 respectively.

In the last few years, well over 15.000 stranded Nigerians have been evacuated back home by the Federal Government and the international organization for migration

Dabiri-Erewa reiterated the commission’s persistent advice to Nigerians to avoid dangerous and deadly migration routes such as Libya, a war-torn country dealing with many struggles.

She urged Nigerians to follow legal and regular means of migration, lamenting that some Nigerians rescued from Libya still returned to Libya or more dangerous routes to get into Europe.

Dabiri-Erewa stressed that the Federal Government would continually uphold the interest, dignity and fundamental human rights of Nigerians at home and in the diaspora, irrespective of their socio-economic, ethnocultural or religious backgrounds, and called for collaboration with government agencies, NGOs, the media and other relevant stakeholders to join hands in raising awareness on the dangers of irregular migration.