The management of Nigerian airline, Air Peace, have dismissed the reasons given by the Immigration authorities of Saudi Arabia, over the cancellation and deportation of 177 Nigerians who arrived on its flight into the Kingdom on Monday.
Recall that about 264 Nigerian travelers were notified that their visa had been cancelled when they landed at the King Abdulaziz International Airport, Hajj Terminal Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday, 13th November, 2023.
Eventually, 177 passengers were made to return on the same flight back to Nigeria while 87 passengers were cleared by immigration and allowed entry into Jeddah.
On Wednesday, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Abuja had made a clarification about the situation.
According to them, “The passengers whom were denied entry, and subsequently deported to their initial destinations, didn’t fulfill the entry conditions and requirements in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations of the Kingdom.”
The statement added that: “The deportees submitted incorrect information to obtain a category of visa that doesn’t apply to them, which was discovered upon their arrival.
“The Royal Embassy would like to stress the importance of following the procedures and laws enacted by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all visitors.
“Furthermore, all passengers should review all the documents to determine their conformity with the conditions prior departing from their countries to the Kingdom.
“This procedure was not limited to Nigerian citizens only, but rather to citizens of other countries.”
But Air Peace management, has rejected the reason given by the Saudi Arabian authorities.
In a statement on its X handle on Wednesday, signed by the airline’s chief operating officer, Oluwatoyin Olajide, Air Peace said that the visa cancellation was not the company’s fault.
The airline claimed that the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided a visa confirmation platform to verify the passengers’ visas before they were allowed to check-in for the flight.
The statement reads: “The visas of all passengers on the said flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia were checked and verified through the requisite procedures and were vetted to be valid before departure.
“The visas were verified using the visa confirmation platform provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia, which confirmed the validity of each passenger visa before passengers were allowed to check-in for the flight.
“All the visas of the 264 passengers were duly verified, confirmed, and accepted as authentic for the trip through the visa portal provided by the Saudi Arabian authorities. If not, no passengers would have been able to depart from Nigeria.
“This is just one of two steps required before a passenger is accepted on the flight to Saudi Arabia. The next step is the use of the Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS). We equally used this system to determine the admissibility or otherwise of each passenger on that flight.”
It also disclosed that the names of the passengers were sent to Saudi Arabia’s National Travel Security Center before the company’s flight took off from Nigeria.
“The APIS was live between Air Peace’s reservation system and the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center carrier portal to transmit passenger details prior to departure to the Saudi authorities in order to further determine the admissibility or otherwise of the passengers.
“No Notice of Cancellation or any form of denial from the Saudi authorities was received against any of these passengers despite the live transmission of their details.
“Furthermore, the Passenger manifest containing the names of all passengers on board the flight was sent to the Saudi Arabia National Travel Security Center carrier portal before the flight departure, yet no Notice of Visa Cancellation was received against any of these passengers.
“While we empathize with the affected passengers for this development and assure them of our full compliance with the provisions guiding international travels, we wish to state that up till this moment, the Saudi Arabian authorities have not provided any explanation for the sudden and unexpected cancellation of the visas,” the airline noted.
