The Federal Government has explained why there is delay in the evacuation of stranded Nigerians abroad.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama said the need to put in place isolation facilities was responsible for the delay of stranded Nigerians abroad.
This, Onyeama however said, has been taken care off and the government was in the process of identifying the airlines that would be involved in the airlift process.
He also said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was working on the selection of the airlines that will be involved in the evacuation process.
The Minister, who spoke in Abuja, said interested airlines have been asked to signify interest.
He said: “Why our evacuation has taken a little bit longer to get going. When I said evacuation, we have evacuated people from Cote d’Ivoire and Republic of Togo about 100.
“By plane, we have to put in place isolation centres, because when they come into the country, they have to be isolated. So we have been spending a lot of resources to put in place and addressing the challenges we have.
“So now, the stage we are now is to identify the airlines we will use to bring these returnees. We are working with National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) for this because that is the agency resojnsible for emergency and the Director General of NEMA has already asked various airlines interested in these evacuation to indicate interest.
“The number are huge. So the challenges are huge and there are all kinds of issues that we have to address weither they have been tested or weither they have been isolated.”
He also said the passengers are to pay for their airlifting.
He however said the government would settle for a cheap airline as a way of assisting the returnees.
He added: “So hopefully very soon, we will start the process of airlifting. We are specifically focus our evacuation on those who want to come back and in many cases those who just found themselves there when the ban on air transport came into place. So really, those on business trip with return ticket. So these are the persons we have in mind.”
