About 500 illegal migrants mainly from Nigeria, Mali, Togo, Senegal, Niger Republic, Guinea Conakry and other African countries have been repatriated from Gabon to Nigeria for not having valid travelling documents.

Receiving the deportees at the Inland Waterways Jetty in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, the State Comptroller of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Funke Adeuyi, disclosed that the foreign migrants would be transported to the nearest land crossing leading to their countries of origin.

After documenting and profiling the migrants, the Immigration boss told journalists that this was the second time the command was receiving deportees from Gabon.

One of the migrants was reported to have died shortly before departure from Gabon for the journey which took four days on the sea.