By Palma Ileye
Federal Government and the European Union (EU) have finalised negotiations on a Readmission Agreement aimed at strengthening migration management, tackling irregular migration and deepening bilateral cooperation.
The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a meeting with the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Mr. Magnus Brunner, and his delegation, ahead of the formal signing of the agreement.
The agreement brings to an end nearly 10 years of negotiations between Nigeria and the EU.
Tunji-Ojo described the development as a significant milestone in Nigeria-EU relations, noting that it would facilitate the return of Nigerians without legal grounds to remain in EU member States while promoting an orderly, dignified and mutually beneficial migration system.
He assured the EU delegation that Nigeria would honour all provisions of the agreement, stressing that the Federal Government neither encourages irregular migration nor supports the abuse of mutual trust between countries.
The Minister emphasised the need to build mutual confidence before discussing measures to ease migration procedures, noting that stronger cooperation would create better opportunities for legal migration.
He said the Federal Government was modernising the country’s migration and border management systems through automation and the integration of national identity databases to facilitate the identification and verification of Nigerians being returned from foreign countries.
According to him, three categories of persons may be affected by the agreement: Nigerians with valid travel documents, those who travelled with valid documents but subsequently lost or destroyed them, and those who travelled without any form of identification.
He explained that the government was developing mechanisms to establish the identities of such individuals through available national records.
The Minister further disclosed that Nigeria had migrated more than 17 billion migration records into its integrated system, adding that similar arrangements were already being implemented with the United Kingdom, while discussions were ongoing with the United States.
On border security, Tunji-Ojo called for stronger international collaboration and real-time intelligence sharing to tackle human trafficking, migrant smuggling and other transnational crimes.
He maintained that such challenges required collective efforts, as no country could effectively address them in isolation.
The Interior Minister also disclosed that the Federal Government had recorded progress in correctional service reforms, with the number of repeat offenders declining from approximately 13,000 in 2023 to about 1,600 in 2025.
Earlier, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, described the finalisation of the agreement as an important milestone in relations between Nigeria and the European Union.
Brunner commended Nigeria’s efforts to modernise its border security architecture and expressed the EU’s readiness to strengthen cooperation through its border management agency.
He identified Police cooperation, combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and establishing legal migration pathways as priority areas for further engagement.
The Commissioner disclosed that approximately 260,000 Nigerians were legally resident in EU member States, stressing the need to expand opportunities for safe and regular migration.
Also speaking, a member of the EU delegation, Johannes Lucher, acknowledged that negotiations had been challenging, explaining that Nigeria had sought to incorporate additional areas of cooperation, including anti-trafficking, anti-drug trafficking and legal migration pathways.
He, however, assured that discussions on the additional areas would commence following the conclusion of the readmission agreement.
Lucher further disclosed that the EU had made available almost €100 million in additional funding to support broader cooperation, with discussions expected to begin with Nigerian migration and security officials.
The meeting ended with both parties reaffirming their commitment to strengthening bilateral relations, building mutual trust and developing practical solutions to shared migration and security challenges.
