"I don see death face to face' - Nigerian Libya returnee overwhelmed with gratitude, kneels on the tarmac and kisses the ground kisses in thanksgiving

Photos posted by IOM Nigeria on Monday, shows one of the Nigerians, who voluntarily returned from Libya,  kissing the tarmac.

Mathew James was one of the Nigerians who tried to travel to Europe through Libya.

When he disembarked from the plane that brought him and 160 other Nigerian migrants at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos on February 14th, James was so overwhelmed with gratitude that he knelt down and kissed the ground.


He also advised Nigerians not to embark on the dangerous journeys that have claimed thousands of lives.

"I left Nigeria for greener pastures”, said Mathew James who was among the 160 Nigerian migrants (79 Males, 68 females, 3 children, and 10 infants) that were voluntarily returned from Libya by IOM on 14 February 2019. Mathew was working as a carpenter in Nigeria before he travelled to Libya. “I don see death face to face but thank God I am alive”.

“Please don’t follow this route, the land is not greener as you think”, he advised.

This is the 59th charter flight organised by IOM under the EU-IOM initiative on Migration Governance and Reintegration in Nigeria funded by the European Union since 2017.