Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on immigration.

Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, disclosed this yesterday.

He said the development was a review of a bilateral agreement signed in 2005 between both countries on return of irregular immigrants, as well as regular migrants who had overstayed their visas.

Speaking earlier, leader of the UK delegation and Minister of State for Immigration, Robert Goodwill MP, stressed the importance of preventing immigration abuse by those who enter and leave the UK. He particularly commended the Minister of Interior for driving the process, which culminated in signing of the MoU.

Dambazau said the review was informed by new challenges that have emerged, and which could only be met by reappraisal of the agreement.

He said such include difficulties in ascertaining “the correct nationalities of some immigrants, as there have been instances where their declared nationalities are in variance with their real ones, creating problems with their return processes.”