Hushpuppi: More woes for Nigerians as UAE gives visa ultimatum

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has ordered Nigerians with expired visas to leave the country on or before August 17, 2020.

This development comes weeks after Dubai police cracked down on some Nigerians including Abass Ramon, popularly known as Hushpuppi, for fraud.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Nigerian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE, announced that the UAE government has given waivers on fines and penalties to Nigerian nationalities whose visas expired before March 1 and expect the affected Nigerians to leave the UAE on or before August 17.

The embassy enjoined the affected Nigerians to join the evacuation flights arranged from the country before the expiration of the grace period.

The statement reads in part;

“The Embassy wishes to inform that the government of the United Arab Emirates has granted waivers on fines/penalties on visas that expired before 1st March 2020 to leave the country on or before 17th of August, 2020.

”Consequently, the Embassy is urging fellow Nigerians living in the UAE to avail themselves of this opportunity to return home with the impending Air Peace evacuation flight scheduled for 1st August 2020, and or subsequent Emirates evacuation flights before the expiration of the grace period.

”Accordingly, affected Nigerian nationals who are willing to return home are kindly requested to submit their names and passport numbers to the Embassy and or the Consulate for onward transmission to the UAE authorities to obtain the necessary clearance.”

Also, UAE recently excluded Nigeria from a list of countries permitted to fly into the Emirates.