Nigeria to clampdown on irregular migrants from August – Minister
Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo says Nigeria will from August 1, 2025 clampdown on foreigners staying illegally in the country.
Tunji-Ojo said all such irregular migrants have a three months window to regularise and subject themselves to established immigration protocols or risk arrest and deportation.
The Minister who made this known during a meeting with the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), advised the body to utilise the three months window for the “immigration amnesty programme”, to regularise the stay of any foreigner in their employment.
“The new administration system will take effect from the 1st of May 2025. So, we said from that 1st of May, we will create an immigration amnesty programme for regularisation of due processes for three months, that is, May to June, June to July, and of course, July to August.
“So, by the 1st of August, there will be a strict clampdown on irregular immigrants, and we hope that people will take advantage of the three months to be able to regularise and subject themselves to established immigration protocols,” he said.
The minister warned that the government would no longer tolerate the obstruction of immigration officers from performing their duties by any company.
“We will be very hard on any company that avoids or prevents the Nigeria Immigration Service from carrying out its legal responsibility. We will not tolerate that going forward.”
Tunji-Ojo said government has established the Expatriate Support Desk, a new unit within the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) to interface with NECA and the organised private sector.
He said its mandate includes addressing issues related to business permits, expatriate quota, Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC), Temporary Work Permits (TWP), and other private sector concerns requiring government intervention.
The minister believes that the new Expatriate Administration System (EAS) will eliminate blind spots in the process.
