The United Arab Emirates government has suspended Direct Employment Visa for Nigerians.
A media report explained that the employment visa was suspended due to the increasing rate of crimes involving Nigerians in the Middle-East country.
Sources who spoke with newsmen noted that Nigerians who are currently in UAE are being searched as security operatives are conducting raids and arrests to get them jailed.
One of the sources explained that Nigerians over there are increasingly having a bad reputation.
According to the source, some have committed several crimes including murder and cult clashes.
The source said, “We all are shouting that our country is bad, and that our government is not rising to our needs, which is true, but our reputation abroad is also fast declining due to our character.
“Two weeks ago, some Nigerians killed one another for selfish reasons at Sharjah, and another one just happened here in Abu Dhabi, when some guys went to an Arab man’s house, killed him, his wife and took away a huge amount of money from them.
“The UAE government is now tracking every Nigerian in Abu Dhabi and they have also banned every Direct Employment Visa from Nigeria until further notice,” the source said.
“For like one week, this city (Abu Dhabi) has been hot. They (the police) are just arresting anyone on sight now. There was a cult incident where Nigerian cult members hacked one another in an area in Abu Dhabi here. It is not easy. As of yesterday (Monday), they have put restrictions on visas for Nigerians. For now, no work permit for Nigerians in UAE generally. The crisis started from Sharjah and last week in Abu Dhabi,” another Nigerian told SaharaReporters.
In January 2021, the Middle-East country had arrested and detained many Nigerians without prosecution, SaharaReporters Reports.
This was after security operatives in the country raided the homes of many African migrants, most of whom are Nigerians, living in towns including Al Qouz, Abu Hail, Sharjah, Al Barsha, and Deira.
Meanwhile, in February, the UAE barred passengers from Nigeria from flying into Dubai due to the government’s refusal to allow the airline conduct the rapid test for covid-19.
The directive which was expected to last for three to four weeks was however extended in March with a view to resume flight operations in Nigeria in June.
In retaliation, the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority banned Emirates from flying into Nigeria due to non-compliance with covid-19 protocols as well as the introduction of a rapid antigen test as a requirement for Dubai travelers.
In an update to this, the aviation minister Hadi Sirika, while briefing the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19, accused the UAE of blocking direct flights to Dubai, asserting that the government will not succumb to the Middle East country’s discriminatory position.
Sirika insisted that Nigerians have the right to travel directly to Dubai without flying Emirates.
According to the minister, “agreement and international convention” should guide civil aviation as he assured Nigerians of their right to travel to Dubai without any discrimination.
”We are aware that some have to travel for medical reasons while some have to resume work. Some are students and even holiday makers.
”We believe that you have the right to travel to Dubai, and you will do so, and for the sake of the international convention, we cannot be discriminated against,“ he explained.
He further condemned UAE’s “unscientific” discrimination against Nigerians.
The minister added, ”Even Ghanaians, Nigerians, and other African countries can go to Dubai directly. So, the protocol is country-specific, and it is not acceptable by the agreement and convention that we signed with UAE.”
”It is only one aviation, and we found this position to be discriminatory against our country, and it is not acceptable. We thought we could take it diplomatically and we have been meeting and exchanging ideas because, at some point, they said they are hard on Nigerians because there are fake results.
”I said there are fake results in UAE, Germany, USA. All over the world, there are fake results, but Nigeria went ahead to put measures in place to detect fake results.”
“We have gone the extra mile plus if you look at the rate of infection and the rate of people catching COVID-19 in Nigeria, we are far less than many other countries in the world which UAE did not apply that principle.”
The minister also argued that though the COVID-19 death toll in Nigeria was 3,000, and “in one day, 3,000 Italians died or British, and they were still being allowed to go direct to UAE.”
In related news, South Africa has been added to the list of countries restricted for travellers by the federal government.
The decision was announced by Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) who made the announcement on Monday June 28, who said this is because of the surge in the country’s COVID-19 cases.
Mustapha also disclosed that the federal government extended restrictions to travellers from Brazil, Turkey, and India for another four weeks.
The restrictions would be reviewed after four weeks.
The SGF said, “The four major variants of concern are now classified as Alpha (UK), Beta (SA), Gamma (Brazil) and Delta (India).
“The Delta variant which has wreaked devastating havoc is not yet found in Nigeria hence the need to tighten our borders and be more vigilant. The WHO Country Representative and the DG NCDC will elaborate on this and the measures for mitigating a potential third wave.
“A few weeks ago, we announced additional measures to be met by passengers arriving from Brazil, Turkey and India. This action was due to the prevalence of variants of concern and the dangers associated with the importation of such virulent strain,” he added.
“The PSC has been reviewing these restrictions and is of the opinion that they should remain for another four weeks before it is further reviewed. South Africa has, however, been added to this category once more.”
The COVID-19 situation in African countries, including South Africa, Zambia, Rwanda, Namibia and Uganda will also be closely monitored.
