Deportation: The Humane Example Of Saudi Arabia

By

Muhammadu Ladodo Gama

ladodogama@yahoo.com

 

Deportees, according to a song made popular by American country artiste, Dolly Parton, don’t have a name when riding the bigger plane back home. Their identity and personality are subsumed in the anonymity of their present status as illegal immigrants being deported home from a foreign country where they are, nicely put, surplus to requirement. But for most deportees, loss of identity is the least of their worries. Most are being repatriated against their wishes from a country they sneaked into illegally back to the one where they had turned their back on and the psychological trauma is better imagined than experienced. The humiliation, overwhelming sense of desolation and eminent non-accomplishment, the wicked dramatic reversal of fortune, the financial loss, the pain of hopelessness, impotence in the face of violent rejection, all of which torment the soul of a deportee, also serve to raise the stakes in the business and processes of illegal immigration.

 

Aware of the stakes, very sensible people try to exhaust all channels of legal migration to avoid the ordeal of deportation. But this could be truly tasking and could stretch into years of agonizingly bureaucratic even if somewhat excessively elaborate procedures. The legitimate road is not only tedious but very expensive and nerve-wracking. It is no wonder most people opt for the illegitimate route and not even the risk of deportation deters those really determined to escape for greener pastures.

 

Immigration for greener pastures is not new but thanks to improvements that followed the industrial revolution in transportation, especially air transportation, movement of people is today freer. The literature of paradise painted of industrialised countries; the power of direct-to-home television and now the Internet in bringing home the lure of far-away riches in lands ashore have simply made illegal immigration such a powerful attraction.

 

Nigerians, Africa’s most populous country with a zestful youthful population and decades of economic mismanagement, are understandably the most travelled peoples on earth, much of the migration illegal, by most documented accounts. This makes Nigerians vulnerable to all manners of deportation tactics by foreign countries’ immigration and police authorities. Only recently a Nigerian was killed while resisting deportation by the South African police. Several Nigerians have died, been brutalized or humiliated while being deported from the United States, South Africa, the United Kingdom and most Western countries.

 

However the experience of Nigerian deportees from Saudi Arabia is different; it is one of humane treatment and respect for the dignity of the individual’. Clearly, the case of Saudi Arabia is very different when analyzing the trend of urbanization in the country.  The Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina host more than two million Muslims from all over the world who visit annually to perform the Hajj. It is tough already and tasking on the Saudi authorities managing what is probably the most complicated human migration yearly. When pilgrims like those dishonest ones from Nigeria abscond and stay back to scavenge for a living, they constitute an undesirable nuisance and additional problems to the authorities. This attitude of many Nigerians has brought shame and disgrace, even misery to other well-meaning Nigerians who visit the country with genuine intentions. It is a shame to see Nigerians begging for livelihood in the Holy Cities. This horde of illegitimate beggars have constituted themselves into a sore point of national image that it is a surprise that the Federal authorities spend billions of naira in laundering the country’s image abroad without considering the activities of these stowaways as an authentic source of national disgrace, which must be addressed. Islamic scholars have also condemned this practice as un-Islamic. Those who are privileged enough to perform Hajj, one of the five Pillars of Islam should make way for others to also come and perform their religious obligations.

 

Now the Saudis are determined to repatriate these renegade Nigerians back to Nigeria through weekly flights from Jeddah to Kano. The modality for repatriation is the subject matter of this discourse. The illegal immigrants, Nigerians and the few other Africans who indulge in this despicable act are rounded up and placed under watch. A writer has attempted elsewhere to compare the Saudi deportee’s camp with the notorious Guatanamo Base detention facility run by the United States Government. Such comparism is based on ignorance and mischief. Guatanamo is a concentration camp devised by the US for those it deems terrorists, a camp without legal or historical precedence and not covered by any International Legal statute and roundly condemned by the international human rights community.

 

The Saudi camp for the deportation of illegal immigrants is on the other hand run like a humane institution where great care is taken to preserve the dignity and respect of deportees. The facilities are modern and luxurious, certainly of higher quality than what the deportees are used to in their home countries. There, inmate are afforded three square meals per day and have access to satellite television and other luxuries as well as a daily allowance of 40 riyals per day for upkeep. In fact the conditions are so comfortable and civilized that some unscrupulous deportees take undue advantage of the situation and disappear when it is their turn to be deported so they can continue to enjoy those facilities and earn more Saudi riyals. Stories are told of ‘smart’ Nigerians who prepare to travel to Saudi Arabia every year and whose real plan is to disappear and get deported at some stage only to repeat the process all over, something they do to ‘earn’ more Saudi riyals which they use to build houses and buy cars to belong to the ‘happening class’. It is already standard tale that many Nigerians are prepared to go to any length to make money even if they have to denigrate their humanity and nationality in the process.

 

It is important to commend the Saudi authorities for their generosity especially to the less privileged Muslims who slip away after performing the Hajj or Umrah. They have utilized the huge hydrocarbon resources Allah (SAW) put under their soil to make the annual pilgrimage a wonderful experience for Muslims around the world. The humane manner they treat Nigerian illegal immigrants should also be commended. They should not be disheartened by the resourcefulness of Nigerian immigrants who devise several means to evade the law and constitute themselves into an international nuisance. They should continue to be kind and generous and be slow to anger. Nigeria is not a poor country and there is no good reason why her citizens should be found begging or engaging on uncivil behaviour in another country. Those Nigerians who engage in this condemnable behaviour must consider the image of their country and the welfare of their compatriots who would go to Saudi Arabia after them, in shaping their behaviour.

 

I would suggest that the Nigerian authorities rise up to the occasion and provide job opportunities for their people. The National Assembly should also enact a legislation to make it a punishable offence for anybody carrying a Nigerian passport to overstay their approved time in the Holy Land. Such a person, irrespective of their excuse must face prosecution and possible imprisonment on repatriation back to Nigeria. While commending the Saudi Arabian government for the compassionate manner it treats Nigerian illegal immigrants, it is indeed our own duty to stop this shameful act which even poorer African countries cannot stoop low to do. It is up to Nigeria and Nigerians to restore the dignity and pride enjoyed by Nigeria and Nigerians in the 60s and 70s when every Blackman anywhere was proud to be called a Nigerian.

 

Ladodo Gama contributed this piece from Kano.