House to Investigate Chinese Living in Nigeria Set to repatriate illegal residents to China

Following the continued maltreatment of Nigerians in China, the House of Representatives at the resumption of plenary on Tuesday ordered a probe on the legality of Chinese nationals living in the Nigeria currently for possible repatriation to China.

This was sequel to the adoption of a motion titled: 'Maltreatment and Institutional Acts of Racial Discrimination against Nigerians Living in China by the Government of China', which was sponsored by Hon. Benjamin Kalu and nine other lawmakers.

Adopting the motion, the House directed the Committees on Interior, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring, and Commerce to investigate the validity of all immigration documents of every Chinese person in Nigeria and the expatriate quota of all the Chinese businesses in Nigeria to ascertain the number of illegal and undocumented Chinese immigrants in Nigeria and to repatriate them to China.

It also urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to, as a matter of urgency, ensure that all Nigerians who wish to return home are evacuated from China and quarantined upon arrival.

The Green Chamber further urged the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide all necessary financial and other assistance to affected Nigerian citizens in China who wish to seek redress in any local or international court for breach of fundamental rights, loss of property or any other actionable cause occasioned by their maltreatment or discrimination in China.

Similarly, it asked the Committees on Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Foreign Affairs, Human Rights and Diaspora to ascertain the extent of violation of rights of Nigerians in China as well as losses arising from such maltreatments, and further engage the Chinese Parliament appropriately to state Nigeria’s National Assembly condemnation of the discrimination against Nigerians and to ensure the cessation of such actions by its people and government.

The House, however, also sought the concurrence of the Senate on the motion.

Presenting the motion, Kalu lamented that under the pretext of curbing the spread of COVID-19, which ironically originated from Wuhan, China, several kinds of maltreatments of Nigerian citizens in Guangzhou have been perpetrated by the Chinese people.

He recalled the troubling case of Mr. Felix Awah Elijah, a Nigerian citizen and legal resident in China, who mysteriously disappeared after his abduction and prolonged illegal detention by Chinese Police Authorities sometime in February 2019, and of which all letters and appeals from him and his representative in the House of Representatives were ignored by the Chinese authorities.

The lawmaker noted that the actions of the Chinese authorities do not reciprocate the favourable treatment their nationals enjoy in Nigeria, adding that it has put a strain on the diplomatic and economic relations between Nigeria and China thereby endangering Nigerian businesses in China valued at billions of dollars.