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Nigeria and Türkiye have moved to deepen cooperation on migration management, pledging renewed efforts to ensure the humane and dignified return and reintegration of undocumented Nigerians who want to return home from Türkiye.
The commitment was reaffirmed on Wednesday during a high-level courtesy visit to the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM) headquarters in Abuja by a delegation from Türkiye’s Presidency of Migration Management. The team was led by Hünkar Burkan İbin, Head of the Deportation Department for Removal Affairs, according to a statement signed by the Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols at NiDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun.
“We prefer voluntary return,” İbin said, describing Türkiye’s National Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (NAVRR) Mechanism. “When irregular migrants are apprehended, they are taken to a holding centre while the Nigerian Government is contacted to facilitate their safe return. Migrants who apply to return are assigned an individual return counsellor who identifies the assistance they need — financial, in-kind or otherwise.”
İbin said the NAVRR mechanism is available to foreigners with deportation decisions, those under administrative detention, victims of human trafficking, international protection applicants and holders, and migrants who have not completed a residence procedure.
He also signalled plans to expand legal migration pathways, including more work permits and educational opportunities. “Of approximately 350,000 international students in Türkiye, 2,600 are Nigerian — that figure must grow,” he said, while adding that irregular migration needs to be brought under control.
Turkish officials told NiDCOM that consultations are ongoing with Nigerian institutions — including the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons (NCFRMI), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the CLEEN Foundation, and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) — to finalise modalities ahead of a proposed Memorandum of Understanding with Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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NiDCOM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, welcomed the delegation and pledged the commission’s full cooperation. She said NiDCOM would intensify awareness campaigns to ensure Nigerians living irregularly in Türkiye are informed of the voluntary return programme and encouraged to take advantage of it.
“NiDCOM will serve as one of the bridges to ensure that what is promised to Nigerians by the Turkish government is fulfilled,” Dabiri-Erewa said, urging undocumented Nigerians to embrace the initiative once it becomes operational. “If it is not working, come back home.”
Dabiri-Erewa described Türkiye as occupying a unique place in Nigeria’s diaspora engagement and recalled that Nigeria’s first bilateral memorandum on diaspora matters was signed with Türkiye.
She noted the vibrancy of the Nigerian community in Türkiye, highlighting successes in business, medicine, and sports, and warned that increasingly stringent migration policies worldwide make undocumented migration more difficult and risky.
Both sides said they would formalise cooperation through the proposed MoU and continue working with relevant Nigerian agencies to give full effect to the outcomes of the visit. The delegation reiterated that the engagement aims to promote orderly migration, expand legal migration pathways, and provide reintegration support for migrants who choose to return.
