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.
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