Nigerians serving jail terms in UK prisons will be deported in the last year to finish the sentence in Lagos

NIGERIAN prisoners serving jail sentences in the UK will now serve the final year of their imprisonment in Nigeria under the terms of a new agreement reached between the two governments as part of Britain's plans to decongest its prisons.

Over the last decade, the UK has been working on a plan to allow Nigerian prisoners to be deported and serve their terms in Nigeria. As part of this programme, the UK government has helped fund the refurbishment of Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos, which was originally built by the British in 1955 during the colonial era.

Now, new laws have come into effect that empower the British government to deport Nigerian convicts up to a year before the end of their sentences. Its first victims, 21 Nigerians and Ghanaians, were sent home last Thursday, with 13 of those deported being Nigerian.

Britain’s Home Secretary Priti Patel, said yesterday that the new agreement with Nigeria would deter illegal migration. Irregular migrants, according to the UK authorities, include persons who entered the country without authority, entered with false documents and those  who have overstayed their visas.

Also categorised as illegal migrants are people who work or study on a tourist visa or non-immigrant visa waiver, enter into forced or fraudulent marriages or have their marriages terminated or annulled. An agreement between Nigeria and Britain allows the authorities to issue emergency travel certificates or temporary passports within five days in order to speed up the removal of people with no right to be in the UK.

Ms Patel said: “Our new landmark agreement with Nigeria will increase the deportation of dangerous foreign criminals to make our streets and country safer. The deal will mean that operational teams in both countries will share their expertise to take the fight to criminal people smugglers who are responsible for a wider range of criminality and put profit before people while undermining the security of our two countries.”

This deal is different to the recent one signed with Rwanda where migrants who enter the UK illegally are sent on a one-way ticket to Kigali where they can claim asylum. The Rwanda deal, which will reportedly cost an initial £120m, comes after three years of promises by Ms Patel to outsource asylum processing to third countries.

 Before reaching a deal with Rwanda, Ms Patel failed to strike deals with Albania and Ghana as they both rejected the asylum offer. About 400 Nigerian offenders are said to be currently serving terms in UK prisons.