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100 migrants stranded after closure of Cameroon border

By Anietie Akpan, Calabar
13 October 2017   |   3:37 am
The Assistant Comptroller of Immigration at the Mfum border, Mr. Lawrence Asuquo, said “75 migrants of different nationalities are stranded at the Nigerian side of the border in different communities, while 20 Nigerians are at Ekokin end of Cameroon....

Following the closure of the Cameroon-Nigeria border at Mfum by Cameroon, about 100 migrants are currently stranded.About 75 of them are foreigners stranded in various locations in Ikom Local Government Area of the state and at the Cameroon end of the border, the Nigeria Immigration Services yesterday confirmed that 20 Nigerians were also stranded since the closure of the border by the Cameroonian authorities on September 28, 2017. As a result last Friday, not less than 300 persons were sited at the border by officials.

The Assistant Comptroller of Immigration at the Mfum border, Mr. Lawrence Asuquo, said “75 migrants of different nationalities are stranded at the Nigerian side of the border in different communities, while 20 Nigerians are at Ekokin end of Cameroon” as he received officials of National Commission of Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons at the Mfum, noting that the border was closed as a result of the quest for an independent state of Amazonia by Southern Cameroon.

Asuquo, who spoke on behalf of the Cross River State Comptroller of NIS, Mrs. Funke Adeuyi, explained that initially, the border on the Cameroonian side was to be closed for 72 hours as emergency measure but expressed concern that it has remained closed since September 28 nut expressed concern over the plight of the stranded migrants.

The Head of a delegation from the National Commission of Refugees Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Mr. Titus Murdakai, who led to team on visit to the Nigeria-Cameroon border for facts finding stated that the commission was already going round to verify stranded migrants who desired asylum in Nigeria.

Representative of the Cameroonian migrants, Mr. Donald Silva, said some of the migrants have been granted asylum by the Nigerian government because of what he called Anglophone crisis in Cameroon as they were being marginalised by the Cameroon government.

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