Following what it called the very extensively damaging public admission by a committee of the Federal House of Representatives alleging that Chinese owned companies in Nigeria are bringing in as expatriates, prison inmates from China to work in many lucrative construction sites paid by Nigeria, a civil rights group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has called for a transparent probe into the development.

HURIWA has therefore called tasked the National Assembly to name and shame the public officials facilitating such illegality.

Through its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Director of Media, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA has also tasked the Comptroller-General of Immigration to provide transparent response to the allegation regarding how expatriate quotes could be granted to Chinese prisoners.

HURIWA disclosed that over 200,000 unemployed graduates of Nigerian origin have petitioned the group demanding that the Federal Government investigates this scam and prosecute the indicted officials just as the group challenged government to defend the right to decent employment of millions of Nigerian youngsters and stop making Nigeria a dumping ground for foreign prisoners and quacks from China and other jurisdictions who are brought in to the country fraudulently to take up job slots that should be given to Nigerian qualified graduates.

In a statement by HURIWA entitled ‘Petition On Behalf Of 200,000 Nigerian Graduates’, the group said “we are petitioning to stand against the illegal immigration of large numbers of Chinese prisoners into Nigeria as expatriates in turn taking slots meant to accommodate graduates in the labour force of the nation.

A member of the House of Representatives, Sani Zoro, (Jigawa State), raised the alarm of incessant importation of Chinese prisoners to work in foreign companies in Nigeria. The lawmaker, who stated that the Chinese prisoners were often conveyed into the country as expatriates, blamed the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) of complicity in the immigration.

However, NIS through its Deputy Controller Immigration (DCI), James Sunday, denied the allegation leveled against the service, insisting that the claim remains an unfounded allegation. He said the statutory responsibility of Immigration on movement of immigrants had never been compromised.

The Controller-General of NIS, Mohammed Babandede, had affirmed in December 2018 that porous borders on the nation’s territory still remain a major challenge bedeviling the success of NIS. He said “we still have unsecured borders.’’

He lamented the inability of Immigration to render maximum control of the 140 recognized land borders in the country.

This is a clear indication that illegal immigrants are much in the country.

The rights group wants government to address the issue with immediate effect and direct the NIS to investigate and report to the nation on the development. It also wants the Chinese workforce in the country to be drastically screened and reduced to the lowest number

HURIWA gave the government 78 hours to address and respond to this petition or there will be a civil protest concerning this issue.

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