About 1,500 Nigerians are serving jail terms for various offences in Italy.
The Italian Ambassador to Nigeria, Stefanou Pontesilli, made this known in Abuja in an interview with journalists.
His words: “In Italy we have about 1,500 Nigerians in jail for various offences. It is a big number.
”We sometimes send them back to Nigeria once they finished their terms because they have not behaved well.”
He described as untrue reports that Italy on some occasions sends some Nigerian migrants back to Libya.
“All those who went to Italy no one, not even one was ever sent back to Libya,” he said.
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He stressed that Nigerians who came to Italy had no problem as long as they behaved well.
He said Italy had in fact been helpful to Nigerian migrants in view of the good relationship between Italy and Nigeria.
According to him, Italy saved the lives of Nigerians when crossing the Mediterranean.
He added: ”Authority has been doing so much by taking them to Italy, feeding them, getting them jobs, giving them house and trying to give them a new life.”
He also praised the Nigerian government for helping in the repatriation of the migrants through chattered flights.
”Thanks for the help from the European Union and the International Organisation for Migrations that are slowly repatriating them back to Nigeria,” he said.
