Former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Prof Bola Akinterinwa spoke to DEBO OLADIMEJI on the dumping of migrants from other African countries in Calabar, Cross River State by Gabon. He spoke on the security implications and the way forward.

What is your take concerning the recent dumping of illegal immigrants from neighbouring African countries by Gabon to Calabar?

The first point is that every citizen, every individual is supposed to have a nationality. You must have an affiliation with a nation state. The implication is that you have a place of abode. You have a place you can always return to. You have a country that has responsibility to protect you. You also have a country to which you have allegiance. That is why we talk about a national. We have citizens and foreigners. When you go to another country you are a foreigner. And then you are subject to the laws in that country. So what is happening now is that when we talk about the Gabonese dumping foreigners in Nigeria and the government of Nigeria is hostile to it, we must understand it in its appropriate context. First of all, those that were deported they are not Gabonese; they are foreigners in Gabon. And they were deported reportedly for not complying with the rules and regulations in Gabon.

Gabon like Mali, like Serra Leone like Nigeria is a sovereign state. As a sovereign country, it has the exclusive right to promulgate laws for purposes of self government. Gabon does not need to take any directive from the United States or from Nigeria or from Germany or any country for that matter.

When we are now talking about deportation of people from Gabon, the major problem is that those deported and allegedly dumped in Calabar are basically Nigerians. And the Nigerians have the right to come back to their home country. If the government of Nigeria is now saying that it will impound any vessel bringing not foreigners only but Nigerians, there may be problem there. The issue now is that the Nigerians do not need any visa to return to their home country. They are free to travel out and to come back. And if they travel to Gabon and for whatever reasons they have to be flown out, the natural place to return to is Nigeria.

As a matter of fact, we should thank Gabon for providing a vessel to bring back Nigerians to their homeland. If for instance the Federal Government of Nigeria is saying that the vessel does not have permission to enter into the territorial water of Nigeria, that is completely different a reason. We are no longer talking about citizenship. We are no longer talking about who has nationalities or who is inside. International law provides that you don’t just enter into the territorial waters, land or airspace without clearance of the government of the concerned territory. So the information given is not very clear in terms of why the Federal Government of Nigeria is hostile and has promised to attach any vessel.

When you attach a vessel, it means that you seize the vessel and attachment is about seizure. The critical point there is that Nigeria has the right to seize any vessel that does not have the clearance of the government of Nigeria. So what we are saying in essence is that there are two ways of looking at the deportation. The Gabonese have the right to deport any illegal persons. All citizens have the right to go back to their home country. What is happening is that the deportees include Nigerians, Malians among other countries. But the issue is that when you are deporting, the deportee has the right to indicate where they will want to be deported to. It is now left for the country to which they are to be deported to accept or not to accept.

Guinea and Guinea-Bissau are members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). As members of ECOWAS, they have the right to travel freely within the ECOWAS region. And in this case, they can stay in Nigeria for 90 days without any molestation and papers because they are community citizens. As community citizens, they are supposed to be allowed entry into any part of Nigeria because Nigeria is the last country to the east of the West African region. So, at the level of the citizens, the Federal Government cannot deny any citizen from ECOWAS apart from Mauritania that is no longer a member. The deportees can have free access to enter Nigeria.

What do you think that the Nigerian Immigration Service should do?

What the Immigration Service should do is to determine whether a non-Nigerian deportee should be admitted. You can give visas to those that need visas. But if the problem is not at the level of the deportees, the individuals but at the level of the carrier, the problem is different. The question is: does the vessel have clearance? Then if the vessel is not simply a carrier of people but of goods, are the goods prohibited? And then if the vessel has erred in law in disrespecting Nigerian law, the vessel should be seized. If the vessel has not informed the Nigerian authorities of what it is carrying, then the Nigerian government can seize it.

What about the security implications of allowing illegal migrants to stay in the country under the ECOWAS treaty?
The first level of looking at the security implication is to look at whether the Nigerians among them are security risks or not. Under normal circumstances, any Nigerian can return to his home country even if he is a criminal. But as a criminal, the security agencies are there to receive him at the airport. And to look at the type of threat he constitutes. The second point is that if Nigerians are deported, diplomatic processes require that the government of Gabon would have informed the Embassy of Nigeria in Gabon. Because the government of Nigeria must be aware, and if the Nigerians are threats even to the security of Gabon, the government of Nigeria must know. And it is on that basis that advanced information of the arrival of the deportees would have been given. It is on this basis that the government of Nigeria can complain bitterly for that matter and take decision to say if we have this type of situation in the future, we would not take it kindly.

What about the possibility of some of those migrants belonging to terrorist groups?

Yes, even though they are Nigerians, they can still constitute a threat if they are being trained as terrorist group if they are receiving training in terrorism. Since there is a law in Nigeria making it unlawful for anyone to engage directly and indirectly in terrorism, then deporting them to Nigeria would imply that the government of Gabon is consciously aiding and abetting terrorism. Then the international responsibility of Gabon can be called to question. And the government of Nigeria can as well report the government of Gabon particularly to the United Nations Security Council which has the responsibility for the maintainance of international peace and security.

Apart from that, you can also talk about security implication if there are reasonable reasons to suspect Nigerians because suspicion, even though they say is not a crime, helps in preventing crimes before they occur. So you cannot fault the government of Nigeria for taking the position it has taken. The security implication is also about more consciousness. The security agents should in the light of current international security developments, be more vigilant. Since we also have many Nigerians going to Syria to join the ISIS, many Nigerians joining Al-Qaeda, it is no longer a situation that others, the foreigners, are the criminals, and that Nigerians are not.

But this is not the first time migrants from other African countries would be dumped in Nigeria. Is it that the government is just waking up to its responsibility?

Nigerians have always been deported from one country or the other. In the 60s and 70s, Nigerians were deported from Equatorial Guinea. The problems were to the extent that a very senior Naval officer in 1966 suggested that probably Nigeria should annex Fernando Po so that the problem could be resolved. The agricultural plantations in Fernando Po were mainly occupied by Nigerians. What happened at that time was that Equatorial Guinea thought that Nigerians were unnecessarily dominating their economy. They deported Nigerians. Nigeria itself deported Ghanaians under the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari. Nigerians are over- travelled. They are in Cote d’ivoire, Senegal they are in different places and they have always been deported whenever the government of the host country considers a basis for it. Nigerians have been deported from America, Haiti, United Kingdom, France, Germany basically for immigration offences, either non-validation of their residence permits, or non-renewal. So in the context of Africa, this is not the first time the government of Gabon will be deporting Nigerians but it is also for the same reasons.

What is not good about the deportation is that it is discriminatory in terms of application of the regulation. It is on record that they make life difficult for African migrants, especially in terms of payment for renewals of their papers. Record has it that while European migrants will pay about $100 for renewals, African migrants will pay as much as $1,200 for renewals. So it is discriminatory. Now we have reports that from time to time, people who are deported they also die, meaning that the handling is not good enough

Is the migrant crisis a threat to globalisation?

The problem now is that the complication of terrorism in terms of its implications for national security and survival, for international peace and security, is now to the extent that people are very hostile to foreigners. Nobody wants uncontrolled migration. Now in France for instance, the way terrorist have killed innocent people, the way they have taken innocent lives, is such that the French government now made new regulations against the wearing of the hijab, wearing of veils etc. They outlawed it to say everybody must be seen. Why? For security reasons. The European Union is coming up with a common attitude and people are now saying that migration to Europe should be more controlled; that they will not accept migrants anyhow.