Sorry Story of Deportees From Germany
OpenLife Nigeria reports that about 80 Nigerian migrants were deported from Germany on May 16 and July 4, 2023 in dehumanising manner. Among them were children battling with serious health challenges, some of which had seen them undergoing surgeries and requiring more of it to perfect their healing.
But with their parents returning home poorer than they were before their sojourn in the European country, there are concerns about how the health of the affected children would be handled in Nigeria where such operations may not come cheap let alone being free
Ewan, a three-year-old girl, has a burden thrust on her budding heart by nature. She vomits food, especially liquids, through her nostrils each time she is being fed. The sight of her predicament rends the heart.
Her problem started shortly after her birth as she was found with some defects around her mouth and cheek region.
“She had an operation carried out on her in Germany but the doctor said she would have to undergo another surgery when she attains age eight or nine. Each time she takes food, particularly liquids, it comes out through her nostrils,” said the mother, Maureen.
After the surgery, the distraught mother was told that Ewan would have to undergo another surgery.
Depressing as the information appeared, Maureen was not perturbed. “I was calm because I was upbeat that it would be carried out there in Germany, and doing it there would not be a problem in anyway.
“They have the competence and it wasn’t going to be a burden financially,” she said.
Contrary to Maureen’s expectations, however, she and her children were deported shortly after the first surgery. As it would be expected, the thought of how to handle her daughter’s health condition has been eating her up since her unintended return to the country.
She said: “When they wanted to deport us, I told them about my daughter’s condition but they said it was not a life threatening issue and that it could be handled in Lagos. They said there are many good hospitals in Lagos.
“But even if it can be handled here in Lagos, at what cost would that be? I came back empty handed and have nobody to run to.”
While Nigeria continues to accept deportation of sick nationals from Germany and other European countries, some other African countries reportedly don’t. An African president, while rejecting deported sick nationals, was said to have asked why the top professionals helping the European country were not deported.
There were cases where mentally challenged people are deported and abandoned at the airport. They roam about and become objects of ridicule in the society. It speaks volumes of how little the Nigerian system regards its own. Some who have tasted such ugly treatment regard the country as a mother hen that devours its chicks.
Maureen said apart from vomiting food through her nostrils, Ewan also has strong aversion for odour.
She said: “Whenever she perceives an offensive odour, she would start vomiting. When she took a walk with her siblings last week, she started vomiting when she perceived an odour.
“The sight of the gutters they saw around irritated them because it was the first time she and her elder brother would see such.”
Besides Ewan’s health issue, Maureen’s only son, Joseph, is also grappling with a health challenge. The amiable four-year-old is still enamored with his German accent
At regular intervals, he spoke the language of his place of birth and used the accent even when he spoke English language.
Joseph suffers pains around his navel. The navel split into two, causing him serious pains. The mother said he was due for operations before they were deported but that did not happen. Now, if the surgery would take place, it would be here in Nigeria, and the burden would have to be borne by the mother who has no means of livelihood.
“He can’t run for a long time because he also has mild asthma,” Maureen said as she gives in to emotion.
After a short period of battle within herself, the mother of four regained her composure. She dragged Joseph, who was coughing, to herself, caressing his hands lovingly.
“He uses the inhaler we brought with us from Germany to be fine. Now I don’t know how to get his inhaler when this one finishes, because I have no means of livelihood. I can’t even provide food for the children.
“He has gone to a health centre here in Lagos but he is still not feeling well. The temperature is still high and he is still coughing.
“He hardly sleeps at night. He rolls all over the ground and keeps climbing my body. They gave me a drug at the health centre but it didn’t work for him. It was the one that my colleague brought from Germany that calmed him down.”
Maureen’s fellow deportee, Juliet, also has two children who had health challenges before returning to Nigeria.
Juliet’s first son, David, had speech impairment at the early stage of his development. The mother said he was always “crying and coming to drag my clothe anytime he wanted to say something but couldn’t express it. He went through treatment back there in Germany but he is not yet perfect.”
David’s sister, Destiny, was feeling sick before they were deported. She and David kept struggling over whose turn to watch cartoon on their mother’s phone.
“Destiny was billed to see a pediatrician in Germany but the doctor asked me to give her ibuprofen the whole day, and if she was not fine, I should bring her to the hospital the following day.
“I gave her the medication all day but she didn’t get better so I planned to take her to the hospital the following day. That very night, policemen came to pick us.
“All my explanation that my daughter was to see her doctor the following day fell on deaf ears. She returned to Nigeria feeling unwell.”
Our academic dreams in jeopardy -Maureen’s grown-up daughters
Apart from her two children who have health challenges, Maureen also has two grown up daughters she gave birth to in Nigeria before they left for Germany. Although they did not seem to have any physical health challenge, the young girls were ailing emotionally and psychologically.
They had it all going well for them academically in Germany, but now they are uncertain about what will become of their ambition with their return to Nigeria, as they have no one to help them.
The eldest daughter, Rosey, 15, said she had gone to school in the morning of the day they were picked up for deportation to prepare for an upcoming field event.
She said: “The school had chosen me as one of its representatives. I was training very had ahead of the event and also looking forward to my graduation next year.
Now all my hope and expectations have been dashed. My classmates only got to know that I have been deported through my teacher.”
Even though she is no longer in Germany, Rosey said her classmates “still send me school materials, but I am no longer a student in the school.
“My plan was to study Nursing there in Germany but I don’t think that is possible for me here in Nigeria because I have no hope of going back school. There is nobody to pay my bills.
“I am yet to come to terms with the fact that we are back in Nigeria.”
The younger sister, Renny, was studying art and other crafts in Germany. Like her elder sister, she said: “I am still in shock about our deportation. I can’t wrap my head around this. I wish it isn’t real,” she said.
How my mum was murdered by Libyan rebels – Juliet
Juliet, one of the two mothers mentioned above, has had to deal with traumatic experiences at different stages in her life. She experienced firsthand horror during the Libya crisis and the memory lingers in her mind.
Recalling her near death experience, she said:
“I narrowly escaped death when rebels threw bomb into our house. Our landlord got wind of the plan and asked us to leave and go lie flat in a bush. Shortly after we left, the rebels threw the bomb and shattered the whole building.”
Recollecting how she went to Libya, Juliet said: “My mother took me to Libya at the age of nine. I was helping her in her business for about 10 years before I left for Italy.
“Libyan rebels killed my mother, and that was why I left for Italy at the age of 19. They entered our house and murdered her.
“I stayed in Italy for eight months before leaving for Germany. I lived in Germany for about five years before I was deported with my children early this month.”
Also reliving her experience Maureen said: “I am an orphan and was doing nothing in Nigeria before I decided to travel. My husband was abroad before I decided to go and join him. He told me about the dangers inherent in travelling to Europe through the desert but I felt it was better to take the risk instead of staying here doing nothing.”
While contemplating the journey, Maureen said her husband had told her that the boat he boarded capsized when he was travelling and that only 80 of them survived out of 190 migrants.
“Only eight females, according to him, were among the 80 that survived,” Maureen said.
In spite of the horrific picture painted by her husband, however, Maureen was undaunted.
“I subsequently made up my mind and first of all travelled through the desert to Libya with my two daughters.
“I took them along because I had no hope of giving them good education here. I left with the hope that they would be able to get good education over there and have a brighter future.”
Continuing, she said: “We spent about a month in Agardez before entering into Libya where we spent two weeks. We subsequently boarded
Lampalampa boat from Libya when the time came for us to go to Europe.
“My daughters were placed on my laps in the lampalampa boat. About 100 of us were in the boat.
“We boarded the boat around 7am and travelled on the Mediterranean Sea for about four hours before coming in contact with a rescue ship.
“The rescue ship first rescued the women with children, pregnant women and ladies before they rescued the males from the lampalampa. We got to Italy the next day.”
Maureen found warm and warmth she probably had not had in a long time in Italy as the Italian authorities welcomed her and her children dearly. “They threw away all the clothes we had in our bags and gave us new ones and shoes. They provided toys for the children to play with and gave us food and all that we needed,” she said.
After some time, Maureen said, “they took us to Bolonia Camp and captured our finger prints. After spending two weeks in the camp, they put us in an apartment of three bedroom flat.
“I stayed in a room in the apartment with my children while others stayed in the other rooms.
Later on, I was told that the authorities would take my children from me and all that. I subsequently left to join my husband in Germany.
“Getting to Germany, the authorities took us into a camp. We were later given an apartment but I was not allowed to work. My children were, however, allowed to go to school.
“My husband and I had two children (Joseph and Ewan) in Germany. In Germany, my children and I were given 1,750 Euros monthly for our upkeep because I was not working.”
Germans chained deportees like beasts
Maureen and Juliet also told about how the German security officials cuffed their hands like common criminals in the presence of their children all through their journey home. The sight of the cuffs on their hands, according to them, dealt a big blow to the psyche of their children.
Recounting her ordeal, Maureen said: “My husband wasn’t around when they came to pick us up for deportation.
“The police told us when they came that we were not going to be deported. They said we might come back to the house. But that didn’t happen as they took us straight to Munich Airport.
“Joseph has kept asking me when the police will come. They handcuffed me all through the journey in front of my children. They were seriously traumatised seeing their mother handcuffed like a common criminal.
“Getting to Nigeria, officials of Nigeria Immigration Services greeted us, saying ‘welcome to your fatherland.’
“After all official processes, they said they were taking us to the hotel to go and rest. We were very happy and shocked at the same time that such could happen in Nigeria.
“But after two to three minutes ride in a white coaster bus that they packed us in, they asked us to get down at NAHCO, the old Hajj Camp area at the airport.
“It was raining that moment and we had nowhere to hide. Imagine being left in the rain with the children after a tortuous and traumatic journey.
“At that moment, I didn’t know where to go. I only had the 100 Euro given to me by the German authorities.”
Also reliving her ordeal, Juliet said: “My children are not Nigerians. Their father is from Ghana, and that was why I queried their deportation to Nigeria.
“The German authorities handcuffed me while I was telling them all this and moved me into the plane. When I wanted to urinate, they did not remove the cuffs.
“They followed me to the toilet. I managed to raise my gown but couldn’t pull the jeans trouser I was wearing very well. I messed my body up in that process. They subsequently gave me sanitizer to disinfect my hand telling me that it was better than using water.”
Nigeria has over the years been in the habit of throwing out deportees without any form of assistance at the airport. The deportees often have to beg passersby to use their phones to reach their relations; a request often rebuffed by many because of the security situation in the country.
Article 21 of the Global Compact on Migration, which Nigeria adopted in Rabat, Morocco in 2018, enjoined countries to cooperate in facilitating safe and dignified return and readmission, as well as sustainable reintegration.
The GCM is also child-sensitive. A final draft obtained by our correspondent says: “The Global Compact promotes existing international legal obligations in relation to the rights of the child, and upholds the principle of the best interests of the child at all times, as a primary consideration in all situations concerning children in the context of international migration, including unaccompanied and separated children.”
But the Nigerian system flagrantly flouts this. Deportees are never given dignified return and issues affecting deported children, including sick ones, attract no sympathy. Deportees are rather treated with contempt and exposed to all manner of humiliation in their fatherland.
‘How DERS saved us from homelessness, hunger’
The confusion and frustration experienced by the deportees fizzled out when they were approached by officials of Deportees Emergency Reception and Support (DERS), who gave them accommodation very close to the international airport. DERS is a project of Network Refugees4Refugees – a self organized diaspora organisation based in Stuttgart/Germany.
Appreciating the gesture of DERS and its officials, Maureen said: We have been staying here since July 4 when we arrived. They are God sent because prior to when they spoke with me, I was confused about what I would do with my life and my children. We had nowhere to go.
“The DERS people have been supporting us so much. They provide us with food and other basic support that we require on a daily basis. Mr Rex (the head of DERS) has been calming me down all along. They have been responsible for taking my children to the clinic and settling the bills.
“After the initial treatment that my son received, Mr Rex has asked us to go for full body check since my son is still coughing and having high temperature.
“I am really shocked that a group can be this kind and supportive after government officials deceived and told us lies.”
In spite of the joy that DERS’ intervention has brought to her and others, Maureen said she had been having sleepless night about what becomes of “me and the children hereafter.
“I have nothing doing and the dream of giving them sound education in Germany has collapsed.
“I am really worried about their education, health and future in general. I wished it was a dream that I am back in Nigeria.”
Also appreciating the intervention of DERS, Juliet said: “I don’t know what would have happened to me and the children if DERS officials didn’t come to our aid.
“I didn’t want to listen to them when they approached us at the airport, but my friend said she learnt about them in Germany and that we would be safe in their hands.
“They came to our aid when government officials abandoned us to our fate. It hurts that they welcomed us with disheartening lie. They said they were taking us to a hotel to go and rest but they never did.
“They ended up throwing us out in the rain without any support.
“Our mobile phone had German lines and we couldn’t reach out to anybody for help. If not for DERS, our fate would be better imagined.”
Speaking on DERS’ intervention for deportees, the coordination activist of Refugee4refugee, Rex Osa, said: “Besides the goal to address the situation of being stranded on arrival after a deportation enforcement, our political mission is to monitor and document deportation violence to facilitate our political will to hold government accountable for its violation of human rights.
“Our engagements is also meant to promote societal understanding of solidarity for deported people.
“With the current situation, we are questioning Germany’s double moral with claims to prioritise the welfare of children and at the same time enforcing massive deportation of children, including teenagers who are a few weeks to taking their final exams in the secondary school and more also the propaganda for so-called open doors for labour migration to meet their needs for labour migration whereas, migrants are randomly picked up from their workplaces and deportation directly on working cloths.”
Deportees’ claim strange – NIS
The Nigeria Immigration Service expressed surprise about the deportees’ claim that its officials promised to give them hotel accommodation.
The national spokesperson of the Service, Tony Akuneme, said it was possible that it was another agency of government at the airport that told them about accommodation.
He said: “As immigration officers, we attend to everybody coming or going outside the country professionally. We don’t discriminate against anyone.
“It doesn’t matter to us if you are a deportee or not. Our job is to do our work professionally.
“While we sympathise with them for any unpleasant experience they might have had while coming back as you said, I want to state here that our officials couldn’t have promised them accommodation in any hotel.
“NAPTIP is also at the airport and they provide shelter and not hotel accommodation for victims of trafficking.
“We would always give our best to our nationals coming back to the country from any part of the world because this is their fatherland.
“If we see that anyone is sick, we will hand him or her over to Port Health.
“Citizens of other countries are also given professional care and attention when coming into or leaving the country.
“We strictly adhere to the ethics of our job.”
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