The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has given until August 17 for Nigerian citizens living in the country on expired visas to leave or face consequences.
In a statement dated July 21, the Embassy of Nigeria, Abu Dhabi advised concerned nationals to join the evacuation flights arranged from the country before the expiration of the grace period.
The embassy urged affected citizens to immediately submit their papers for emigration processing.
“The Embassy wishes to inform that the government of the United Arab Emirates has granted waivers on fines/penalties on visas that expired before 1st March 2020 to leave the country on or before 17th of August 2020,” the statement read.
“Consequently, the Embassy is urging fellow Nigerians living in the UAE to avail themselves of this opportunity to return home with the impending Air Peace evacuation flight scheduled for 1st August 2020, and or subsequent Emirates evacuation flights before the expiration of the grace period.
“Accordingly, affected Nigerian nationals who are willing to return home are kindly requested to submit their names and passport numbers to the Embassy and or the Consulate for onward transmission to the UAE authorities in order to obtain the necessary clearance.”
The move by the UAE comes after the arrest of a suspected Nigerian fraudster Ramon Abbas alias Hushpuppi.
Authorities in the UAE also recently excluded Nigeria from a list of countries permitted to fly into the Emirates.
Last week, its aviation authorities impounded a Nigerian aircraft for flouting safety procedures.
