Lagos — There were indications at the weekend that the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) may have started restricting unmarried Nigerians, especially ladies below the age of 40 ,who do not have genuine reasons from travelling to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for fear of engaging in prostitution and other activities that may dent the image of the country.
Checks by Daily Independent revealed that young men and women below 40 years of age and who were not accompanied by someone that is 40 years and above and who bear the same surname with the travellers are prevented from travelling out of the country from the international wing of the Murtala Muhammed Airport(MMA),Lagos.
A source close to NIS at the Lagos Airport claimed that the directive came from the NIS headquarter in Abuja and that the new directive took effect from last week.
The source explained that the new directive is to prevent Nigerians, especially females who travel to Dubai from engaging in prostitution, adding that such categories of air travelers are stopped from travelling to Dubai to prevent embarrassment on getting there.
The source further said that the travel restriction was in compliance with the rules set by the Dubai authorities in February this year as it concerns new visa rules to Nigerians and other countries.
The new visa rules for Nigerians wishing to travel to Dubai states that single ladies/men travelling alone should be 40 years old and above, married women travelling with children should be above 40 years old and ladies/men who are less than 40 years old will be allowed to travel if accompanied by someone who is above 40 and bears the same surname with them.
For people from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia the minimum age requirement to apply for visa is 40, while the minimum age requirements for other nationalities is 21 for men and 23 for women.
Source: AllAfrica