….Calls on Foreign Affairs Ministry to Ensure that all Nigerians Who Wish to Return Home are Evacuated from China and Quarantined Upon Arrival
By Chris Udochukwu
Abuja – House of Representatives on Tuesday condemned the maltreatment and xenophobic discrimination against Nigerians living in the Peoples Republic of China.
Presenting this in a motion to the House on Tuesday at plenary, Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu who led the debate, expressed concern that under the pretext of curbing the spread of COVID-19, which ironically originated in Wuhan, China, several kinds of maltreatments of Nigerian citizens in Guangzhou have been perpetrated by Chinese people and authorities.
He listed the maltreatment to include, wrongful confiscation of Nigerian international passports, prolonged and illegal detaining of Nigerians in the name of mandatory quarantining d
espite holding a certificate of clean health and no recent travel history, outright refusal to test or release the test results, and the eviction of Nigerians from their homes, hotel accommodations, refusal of entry into shops, pharmacies, restaurants and hospitals, including beating of Nigerians on the streets with no police intervention among others.
The official spokesperson of the House of Representatives recalled that sometimes in April 8, 2020, photos and videos emanated across various social media depicting the institutionalized racial discrimination, maltreatment, xenophobic assaults, embarrassments, illegal detention and forceful eviction of Nigerians and other Africans living in Guangzhou.
Hon Kalu who led the Senator further recalled the troubling case of Mr. Felix Awah Elijah, a Nigerian citizen and legal resident in China who mysteriously disappeared after his abduction and prolonged illegal detention by Chinese police authorities sometime around 6th February, 2019; and of which all letters and appeals from Rep. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, his representative in the House, were ignored by Chinese Authorities.
He also recalled how Honourable Speaker of this House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama and the Nigerian Ambassador to China, Ahmed Jidda undertook various independent and coordinated interventions, including meetings with the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Zhou Pingjian, to register Nigeria’s displeasure with the incidents.
The House therefore urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to, as a matter of urgency, ensure that all Nigerians who wish to return home, including Nigerians that only visited for business, Nigerians with any form of travel document and identification, Nigerians with passports but expired visas, and Nigerians with passports and valid visas who have been ejected by house owners, Nigerians who have tested negative to Covid-19, are evacuated from China and quarantined upon arrival.
The green chamber expressed worry that in the exercise of his function of protecting the interest of nationals of his sending State as provided for under Article 5 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, the Nigerian Consul General was treated in clear violation of Article 40 of the same treaty which requires the receiving State to treat consular officers with due respect and to take all appropriate steps to prevent attack on their persons, freedom or dignity; this dignity was abused by the Chinese government when they ignored the request of the Nigerian High Commissioner to allow Nigerians back to their accommodation, access to hospitals or restaurants which led to the High Commissioner himself buying and distributing food to Nigerians who where hopeless and lying in the streets under the rain.
It further noted that the actions and inactions of the Chinese authorities clearly establish a trend of racial discrimination as defined by Article 1(1) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination to mean “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.”, and that such actions and inactions are in breach of several other international conventions to which Nigeria and China are signatories.
The members of the green chamber unanimously resolved that it has become imperative to take further actions to ensure the safety and welfare of Nigerians in line with the mandate of Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Altered).
The House therefore urged the Attorney General of the Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and all relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies to provide all necessary financial and other assistance to any affected Nigerian citizen in China who wish to seek redress in any local or international court for breach of fundamental rights, loss of property or any other actionable cause occasioned by their maltreatment or discrimination in China.
It also mandate the House Committees on Interior, Local Content and Commerce to investigate the Nigerian Immigration, Corporate Affairs Commission, Nigerian Content and Development Monitoring Board, and any other relevant Ministry, Department or Agency to check the validity of all immigration documents of every Chinese person in Nigeria and the expatriate quota of all the Chinese businesses in Nigeria to ascertain the number of illegal and undocumented Chinese immigrants in Nigeria and to repatriate them to China to regularise.
While urging the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to concur to this resolution, it also mandated the Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Foreign Affairs, Human Rights and Diaspora to ascertain the extent of violation of rights of Nigerians in China as well as losses arising from such maltreatments and to further engage the Chinese Parliament appropriately to register Nigeria’s National Assembly condemnation of maltreatment and xenophobic discrimination against Nigerians in China and to ensure the cessation of such actions by its people and government and that treatments meted to Nigerians are compatible with China’s human rights obligations, and to report back to the House within 2 weeks.
