The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Tuesday received 173 Nigerians assisted to return from Libya, where they had been stranded.
NAN reports that the returnees, who arrived the country in two different flights, were received by the Coordinator, Lagos Territorial Office, NEMA, Alhaji Abubakar Muhammed at the Cargo Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.
According to him, the Nigerians were assisted back home by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme which began in April 2017.
He said that 162 of the returnees arrived from Misrata in a chartered aircraft belonging to Al Buraq Air with registration number 5A-DMG, at 4.52a.m.
Muhammed added that another 11 returnees arrived via a commercial flight from Bengazi at 5.15a.m.
“The profiling of the returnees on arrival indicated that there were 52 female adults, four female children and four female infants as well as 106 male adults, two male children and five male infants.
“Twenty-one of the returnees had medical issues and were immediately attended to by the medical team on ground,” he said.
The Director-General of NEMA, Mr Mustapha Maihajja, said the returnees were brought by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and European Union on the platform of the Assisted Voluntary Returnees (AVR) Programme.