India Evicts Nigerians Over ‘Photocopy Passports’

*.Nigeria will retaliate, envoy says
A Nigerian consular official warned
yesterday that thousands of Indians in
Nigeria will be “thrown out on the streets”
if the India police doesn’t stop evicting
Nigerians from their rented homes in Goa,
Ummid has reported. Speaking to IANS
after meeting members of the Nigerian
community in Goa, bureaucrats and police
officials over the last two days, consular
attache, Jacob Nwadadia, said the Goa
government had until 9 p.m. yesterday to
stop the illegal eviction process.
“There are only 50,000 Nigerians living in
India, but there are over one million
Indians living in Nigeria. Thousands of
Indians living there will be thrown out on
the streets if forcible eviction of Nigerians
in Goa does not stop,” Jacob said.
The official said Nigeria was five hours
behind Indian Standard Time and that
there would be time for the Nigerian
government to order action against Indians
living there. The Goa government said
yesterday it will write to the Nigerian
embassy after a number of Nigerians living
in Goa were found to be using only
photocopies of passports and visas as
proof of their nationality, Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar said. Mr Parrikar was
speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a
government function at the secretariat. “We
have questioned a lot of Nigerians and
were verifying their documents. Most of
them have only photocopies of their
passports and visas.
We are going to ask the Nigerian embassy
to verify these documents,” Mr Parrikar
said. This is part of a verification drive
started by the Goa government which will
inspect documents of all foreign nationals
living in the state.
The drive was announced after Nigerian
nationals blocked a National Highway
Thursday for hours protesting the murder
of a Nigerian by a local drug gang. Both
MPs from the state, as well as many people
have been calling for a boycott of Nigerians
living in Goa even as many liberals have
called these statements ‘racist’ in nature.
The Goa government has ordered a
crackdown on all foreigners living in this
tourism hub after a bitter clash between a
mob of over 200 Nigerians on one side and
police and locals on the other.
The Nigerians, who were protesting the
murder of one of their compatriots, had
blocked National Highway 17 for several
hours, demanding the presence of Nigerian
consular officials for the autopsy
proceedings.
http://nationalmirroronline.net/new/
indian-government-evicts-nigerians-over-
photocopy-passports/

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