Xenophobia: South African authorities again frustrate evacuation of Nigerians

The evacuation of the second batch of Nigerians from South Africa, on Tuesday, suffered an interruption due to the delay in granting landing permit to Air Peace.

The airline had volunteered to evacuate Nigerians willing to return to the country following the recent violence against foreigners in the southern African country.

DAILY POST reports that the airline in collaboration with the Federal Government had on Sept. 11 evacuated the first batch of 187 Nigerians from South Africa.

There was a plan for the airline to evacuate another batch of 320 Nigerians who had indicated interest to return home, with the flight expected to arrive in Lagos at 7.00p.m on Tuesday.

However, Mr Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace, told NAN in Lagos that the airline’s B777 aircraft deployed for the operation was still on standby at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

According to him, the aircraft is supposed to have departed Lagos at 1.00 am, but was denied landing permit by the South African authorities.

“We did not take off at 1:00am as scheduled because South African authorities are yet to give us landing permit.

“We are hopeful that they will give us the permit. Our crew waited till 3:00 am, but when the permit did not come, they went back to the hotel.

“Once we get the permit, we will set off to South Africa. We don’t want to speculate but we are hopeful they will give the permit,”Onyema said.

Recall that reports that the South African authorities had also on Sept. 11 prevented some Nigerians from leaving the country, insisting on a fresh profiling exercise in spite of the one earlier conducted by the Nigerian High Commission.

#SouthAfrican #Xenophobia