The Nigeria Immigration Service announced on Friday that over 1,100 Nigerian migrants have returned home from Agadez in Niger Republic, arriving in Kano by road.
Various federal and state agencies have been deployed to receive, document and support the returnees as they reintegrate with their families.
The Commandant of the Immigration Training School in Kano, Anthony Akuneme, explained that the returnees are being processed through a dedicated migration data system before moving on to a transit centre where they receive profiling, psychological counselling and reintegration support.
He confirmed that multiple agencies are working together to ensure the process goes smoothly and safely.
The reintegration effort is being coordinated jointly by the Nigeria Immigration Service, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, the International Organisation for Migration and state government partners.
Friday’s arrival is part of a continuing pattern of returns from Agadez, a city in northern Niger that has long served as a major stopover for West African migrants attempting to travel overland through Libya and across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Agadez was once one of the busiest migration transit points in the world, particularly between 2015 and 2018.
Although Niger later introduced anti-smuggling laws that significantly reduced the flow of migrants through the area, irregular movement along the route never completely stopped.
The situation was further complicated by the military coup of July 2023, which removed President Mohamed Bazoum from power and disrupted the security framework that had helped manage migration across the Sahel region.
Nigerians are among the largest groups of returnees from the Agadez corridor. According to the UN refugee agency’s April 2026 data, at least 269,010 Nigerians who fled conflict in the Northeast are currently sheltering in Niger’s Diffa region.
The IOM noted that since 2017, it has helped thousands of stranded Nigerians return home voluntarily from Niger, with most being young men from northern states who had hoped to reach Europe but became stuck due to lack of money, detention or the breakdown of smuggling networks.