No fewer than 268 Nigerians evacuated from China have arrived in Abuja.
We learned that on Saturday afternoon the flight conveying the evacuees landed at Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport. The Secretary, Nigerians in the Diaspora Committee, Abike Dabiri-Erewa disclosed this through a tweet.
268 Nigerians
Dabiri-Erewa said the returnees should go on a mandatory quarantine of 14 days, as stipulated by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control. Some of the nationals had faced systematic ethnic discrimination from provincial officials in Guangzhou , China.
268 stranded Nigerians arrive at Abuja airport about 2.30 pm today, from China. They will be proceeding for the mandatory 14-day quarantine pic.twitter.com/FBoNazGB9H
— Abike Dabiri-Erewa (@abikedabiri) May 30, 2020
In April, there were videos in circulation on how Nigerians were being maltreated in China over the suspicion that they might have contracted the coronavirus.
Speaking at the media briefing of the presidential task force on COVID-19 on April 23, 2020, Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, had said the federal government was engaging with other African nations on definitive steps to check the trend of maltreatment of its citizens in China.
Some of the returnees were said to have faced racial discriminations in Guangzhou, China, from provincial officials.
They have reportedly been evicted from their apartments and hotels following their alleged refusal to go for the compulsory quarantine levied by the provincial authorities in Guangdong following the coronavirus outbreak.
Recall that a video of a woman with two children who were staying on the streets was shared by some Nigerians.
In the footage, the unidentified woman was feeding her infant daughter as the older second child slept in a baby walker; she was allegedly evicted from her apartment.
Reacting to the incident, the Chinese authorities said they subsequently provided free hotel accommodations for 207 Nigerians.
The government said the beneficiaries included Nigerians who were evicted from their hotels and apartments by officials in the wake of the compulsory quarantine and testing of foreigners for coronavirus by the Guangzhou Municipal Authorities.
