By Brown Chimezie
The Ohanaeze Ndigbo Mekong River, Thailand has called on the new ambassador of Nigeria to Thailand, Ambassador Ahmed Nuhu Bamalli to help address visa challenges facing Nigerians in Thailand.
The call was made recently when a delegation of Igbo leaders comprising the Eze Ndigbo Mekong River, Thailand, Eze (Amb) Jerome Uzochukwu Ezeneche, President Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Mekong River, Asia, Chief Abadom Ugwunso, and others visited the new ambassador in his office.
In a statement made available to Daily Sun after the visit, Chief Ugwunso said Nigerians living in Thailand go through hell in the hands of Thai immigration officials who subjected them to all manner of intimidation and harassments. He lamented that the new visa policy whereby Nigerians who served prison terms were deported without their wife and children has brought untold hardship on families of the deportees who now live like destitute in that country.
While commending their leader, Eze Ezeneche for his exemplary leadership which has seen him taking the abandoned children to orphanage homes, the Ohanaeze boss call on President Muhamadu Buhari and South East governors to intervene so as to assuage the hardship being faced by Nigerians in that country. He said since the introduction of the obnoxious visa policy, the Eze Ndigbo Mekong and Ohaneze Ndigbo have carried the financial burden of caring for the families of the deportees.
The statement further said that Ohanaeze and Eze Ndigbo Mekong are ready to partner with the embassy, and South East governors to ensure that illegal immigrants are stopped from coming into Thailand.
On the issue of BVN registration in the Diaspora, the Igbo delegation commended the Federal government but urged them to establish registration center in Thailand and other Asian countries, adding that Nigerians in Thailand faces serious hurdle to do the BVN registration in Malaysia which is the only approved registration center for Nigerians living in the Asian continent.