The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Friday announced that about 12,574 Nigerians have returned from Libya under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme, which began in April 2017.
Reports has it that the Coordinator, NEMA Lagos Office, Malam Idris Muhammed, made this while receiving a fresh batch of 174 Nigerians who arrived from Libya on Thursday night.
Muhammed has praised the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the European Union (EU) for facilitating the return of Nigerians stranded in the volatile North African country.
According to him, over 4,900 of the returnees have been trained on various skill acquisition and empowerment training by IOM through special funding facilitated by the EU.
He added that most of these returnees had set up various businesses in their choice of occupation and were contributing their quota to national development.
The new returnees arrived on the 64th flight facilitated by the IOM and EU. They returned via an Al Buraq Airline Boeing 737-800 aircraft with flight number UZ 389-390 and registration number 5A-DMG.