ARIK AIR

House summons Foreign Affairs Minister over SA deportation

Arik Air Suspends Johannesburg Flights

Eager to ward off a looming diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa over the deportation of 125 Nigerians from South Africa on Friday, the House of Representatives has summoned Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gbenga Ashiru, to appear before it on Tuesday.

Chairperson of the House of Representatives’ committee on foreign affairs, Nnenna Elendu-Ukeje, says the country is concerned with growing maltreatment of Nigerians in foreign countries, calling the latest deportation of 125 Nigerians, over the alleged failure to provide genuine yellow fever vaccination documentations, a grave insult.

“The outcome of the meeting will shape our next line of action as a parliament in our foreign policy direction and relationship with these countries. We cannot allow these insults on our citizens and country continues unabated’’ she said.

The permanent secretary, ministry of foreign affairs, Martin Uhomoibhi said the ministry was surprised at what happened in South Africa.

“These Nigerians have legitimate visas, and the yellow card was part of the packages that needed to be cleared before they are given visas,” he said.

Mr Uhomoibhi said another question that his ministry is seeking answer is “why those who travel from here to South Africa who are South African not get the same treatment with or without yellow card?”

He said the ministry is already in dialogue with the South African authority to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

The deportees, 75 who had arrived via South African Airways (SAA) and 50 passengers coming in with Arik Air, had been returned to Nigeria hours after their arrival on Thursday, including some who had visited the country several times before.

The mass deportation has frayed relations between both countries, with Arik Air announcing that it was suspending flights to South Africa for the time being.

Adebanji Ola, head of communications for the airline, said the decision to suspend flights between the commercial hubs of both African countries “was taken due to the ongoing dispute between international airlines operating in Johannesburg and the Port Health Authorities over Yellow Fever documentation being presented to authorities at OR Tambo International Airport by passengers”.

The passengers were denied entry into South Africa when Port Health authorities claimed that the batch numbers on the vaccination documentation provided by the travelers had been incorrect.

“Arik has reached the conclusion that the irregular and obfuscating nature of this protocol is having an impact on its passengers and does not wish to proceed with operations into a country where its customers are at risk of detainment or any other measures meted out arbitrarily by the authorities,” the company said in a statement.

Group CEO/President of Arik Air, Dr. Michael Arumeni-Ikhide, said while he had been informed that the “current crack-down is not unique to Nigeria and its inbound passengers”, he is determined to take a stand to “show the Port Health Authorities we are simply not prepared for our customers to be treated in this manner”.

Mr. Tope Awe, spokesperson for South Africa Airways assured that the national carrier had made concerted efforts to avoid deportation of Nigerians.

He said the airline had gone to great lengths to authenticate the vaccination documents, but had been unable to do so; the country’s government had insisted that the deported passengers had failed to meet Port Health criteria and as such must be sent back to Nigeria.