At least 1,100 Nigerian migrants have arrived in Kano after travelling by road from Agadez in Niger Republic, the Nigeria Immigration Service confirmed on Friday.
Immigration authorities said officials from several government agencies are overseeing the registration, counselling and reintegration of the returnees.
According to the Commandant of the Immigration Training School in Kano, Anthony Akuneme, the migrants are being processed through the Migration Information and Data Analysis System at the Migrants Arrival, Knowledge and Information Area before undergoing profiling and psychosocial support at the International Transit and Stay of Knowledge centre.
“Personnel of KNSC, MAKIA and ITSK are fully on ground with other relevant federal and state agencies to ensure hitch-free and safe processing,” Akuneme wrote in a terse statement titled ‘1,100 Nigerian returnees from Agadez, Niger Republic, just landed in Kano by road.’
The return highlights the continued movement of stranded Nigerians through Agadez, a long-standing migration hub for West Africans attempting to reach Europe through Libya.
Despite tighter migration laws and crackdowns in Niger, irregular migration routes through Agadez remain active. Recent instability in the Sahel, especially after Niger’s 2023 coup, has also contributed to renewed movement along the corridor.
The International Organisation for Migration says it has assisted thousands of stranded Nigerians to voluntarily return home from Niger since 2017, many of them young people unable to continue their journey due to financial difficulties, detention or disrupted smuggling operations.
