Nigerians living with expired visas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been ordered to return to their country.
The directive from the UAE authorities comes after Dubai police cracked down on some Nigerians including Instagram celebrity, Abass Ramon, popularly known as Hushpuppi, for fraud.
According to the order, those with expired visas are to leave UAE on or before August 17, 2020.
The directive from the UAE Government was announced by the Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, July 22, 2020.
In a statement, the Embassy announced that the UAE Government has given waivers on fines and penalties to Nigerian nationalities whose visas expired before March 1 and expect the affected Nigerians to leave the UAE on or before August 17.
The Embassy has therefore urged those affected to join the evacuation flights arranged from the country before the expiration of the grace period.
According to the statement, “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.”
”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,” it read.
”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 to obtain the necessary clearance.”
Hushpuppi was transported from Dubai to the USA where he is standing trial over multiple fraud charges, with one of the cases being his alleged involvement in an attempted £100 million scam of an English Premier League Club.
By Melvin Tarlue