Senate Responded To UAE Government Suspension Of Visas For Nigerians

The NCAA had said the moves by Emirates violated the country’s COVID-19 protocols while Hadi Sirika, Minister of Aviation, described it as “discriminatory profiling” of Nigerian travellers.

The Senate has intervened in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates.

The decision to wade into the dispute was reached sequel to a point of order by the Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, during the plenary.

The UAE government had recently suspended Visit/Tourist Visa for Nigerians.

Visit visa is for those who are not eligible for visa-on-arrival or a visa-free entry to the UAE.

In February, UAE national carrier, Emirates Airline also directed Nigerian travellers at the Lagos and Abuja airports to conduct rapid COVID-19 tests before departure.

This led to a ban on Emirates flights in Nigeria. The ban was later lifted after the airline agreed to stop the rapid antigen tests.

In a twist in March 2021, the Nigerian government reintroduced the ban, explaining that Emirates had continued to conduct rapid antigen tests for passengers before departure from Nigeria.

Speaking during plenary on Tuesday, Abaribe raised a point of order to recall that in December 2020, a memorandum of understanding was executed between Nigeria and the UAE to provide a platform for both countries to engage in bilateral relationship.

Abaribe explained that the Emirates Airline then shut down flights to and from Nigeria owing to the disagreement between the airline and the aviation authorities on the propriety of subjecting passengers travelling from Nigeria to emergency COVID-19 protocols.

He, however, said that after an interface between the authorities of the aviation ministry and Emirates Airline, flights resumed but the Emirates Airline continued to conduct test for passengers before departure from Nigeria, a development the federal government frowned at and thus suspended the airline from flying to and from Nigeria.

Abaribe said there were allegations that hundreds of legal residents of Nigeria living in the UAE were losing their jobs on account of the refusal of the authorities to renew their work permit which offends the letters of bilateral agreements which both nations are signatory to.

He said, “Worried that there are speculations that the refusal by the UAE authorities to renew work permit for Nigerians living there is a calculated attempt to pressure the Nigerian government into accepting their conditions of service for their national airline that may have lost humongous revenue from the Nigeria route.

“Further worried that if the Nigerian government does not urgently engage the authorities of the UAE, thousands of Nigerians living and working there will lose their jobs and means of livelihood, hence the need for a quick interface with the authorities of the UAE.”

The red chamber, in a resolution, mandated the Senate Committees on Foreign Affairs, Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and national security and intelligence and Intelligence and Interior (Immigration Service), respectively, to interface with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and National Intelligence Agency on best ways of resolving this crisis and report back to the Senate within two weeks.