By Samuel Oyejola
Following numerous complaints by visa applicants in Nigeria, an online radio station dedicated to migration, Amebo Radio is set to mobilize Nigerians and regular migrants to protest the culture of collecting visa fee without granting visa to applicants by embassies in Nigeria.
Time Nigeria exclusively gathered that the peaceful protest is to make federal government and relevant agencies of government intervene and call embassies in the country to order.
The peaceful protest is expected to hold on 26 July and 31 July. Head of the online radio and convener of the protest, Augustine Blessing Eguvwese told Time Nigeria that protesters will march to the National Assembly and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to demand immediate intervention and save Nigerians from arbitrary extortion.
The protest is tagged “One Million Match against Visa Fraud, Exploitation And Corruption” is to demand that travel insurance should be required only when visa has been granted or there is guarantee of grant.
Eguvwese, told Time Nigeria magazine that making visa applicants pay for visa fees without granting visa is fraudulent.
Eguvwese said “the era when embassies conduct interviews for visa applicants should be reintroduced as this would avail regular migrants opportunity to explain the purpose of their travel to the consular.
“It amounts to fraud and corrupt practices when embassies make visa applicants pay for what they (embassies) know will not be granted,” he said.
Explaining further he said the peaceful protest is also “to report the arbitrary extortion perpetrated by VFS Nigeria in its operations in visa application process to the federal government.
“Nigerians should not be taken for granted in their own country. It is even more absurd when foreigners come to our country to take us for a ride. We have decided as Nigerians that enough is enough. We want to Minister for Foreign Affairs to call these embassies to order.”
Time Nigeria investigation revealed that service charges by VFS Nigeria in most cases triple the visa fee they remitted to the embassies with no justifiable reasons for the charges. The medium gathered that VFS Nigeria among its outrageous fees charges N400 for Short Message Service (SMS) for a maximum of four sms they send to visa applicants.
