President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerian migrants stranded in Libya and elsewhere would be bought home.
Buhari, who spoke on the sidelines of the ongoing African Union-European Union Summit in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, vowed to do everything possible to prevent more Nigerians from making the perilous journey to Europe.
The President spoke after the emergence of footage showing migrants being sold at slave auctions in Libya.
He said the migrants were being treated like goats.
The United Nations- backed authorities in Libya had said they were increasing repatriation flights from the North African nation.
About 240 Nigerians were voluntarily flown home in a joint operation by Libya and the UN migrant agency on Tuesday night.
The plight of those trapped in Libya – a major hub for migrants attempting to reach Europe – was highlighted by the footage published by CNN.
The footage showed young men being auctioned for farm work in Libya.
The issue of people attempting to enter Europe illegally was already expected to be high on the agenda of this week’s summit in Abidjan, the BBC reports.
“Some Nigerians [in the footage] were being sold like goats for few dollars in Libya,” Buhari said during the address to the Nigerian diaspora on Tuesday, before lashing out at Libya.
”After 43 years of [Col Muammar] Gaddafi, why are they recruiting so many people from the Sahel including Nigerians?
“All they learned was how to shoot and kill. They didn’t learn to be electricians, plumbers or any other trade.”
He promised those who returned would be “rehabilitated” and vowed to tackle corruption, defeat terror groups like Boko Haram and improve like education to stop Nigerians leaving in the first place.
“For people to cross the Sahara desert and Mediterranean through shanty boats, we will try and keep them at home,” he said.
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