International records / OpenAlex research

Free movement of persons in ECOWAS and Nigeria's expulsion of illegal aliens

On 17 January 1983, Nigeria joined three other members of ECOWAS (the Economic Community of West African States) Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone in the expulsion of illegal immigrants residing within the bounds of their territories. Nigeria's action was significant for three reasons: first, it affected a large number of people (estimated to be in millions) most of whom came from member-states of ECOWAS; second, it was the second act of alien expulsion (the first was the December 1982 expulsion of members of the Foulah community, mostly Guineans, by Sierra Leone) since the adoption of the Lagos…