Deportation: Air Peace Confirms Visas Of All 264 Passengers Verified Before Airlift

• Says Visas were verified using the visa confirmation platform provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Saudi Arabia.

Air Peace Airlines has disagreed with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on reasons adduced for the deportation of 177 out of the 264 Jeddah-bound passengers, saying the travel details of the passengers were shared with the Kingdom’s authorities before they were airlifted out of Nigeria.

Gentechnews reported on Tuesday, 14th November, 2023, that Saudi Arabia has surprisingly revoked the visas of all 264 passengers who arrived through Nigeria’s prominent carrier, Air Peace, in Jeddah on Monday.

The flight took off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos through the Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano with 264 passengers on Sunday night and arrived in Saudi Arabia’s major city on Monday without issues.

The Saudi authorities did not even consider the Advanced Passenger Prescreening System clearance during check-in, but insisted on the immediate return of the passengers to Nigeria.

Following intervention by the Nigerian embassy, Saudi authorities reduced the number of passengers to be returned to 177, leading Air Peace to promptly repatriate the affected passengers back to Nigeria.

A press statement issued by the chief operating officer, Air Peace Limited, Oluwatoyin Olajide, said visas of all passengers on the said flight to Jeddah were checked and verified through the requisite procedures and were vetted to be valid before departure.

Olajide stated that 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’s visa before they were allowed to check-in for the flight.

The statement read: “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’s 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 Arabia 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 use this system to determine the admissibility or otherwise of each passenger on that flight.

“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 ahead 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.”

The chief operating officer, Air Peace Limited, stated further that immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that Valid Visas were cancelled the way it was done.

“We would like to reiterate that Air Peace strictly followed the profiling procedures stipulated by the Saudi Arabian Authorities and we are still shocked that upon arrival in Jeddah, the visas of our passengers were cancelled without any cogent explanation even till now.

“The immigration officers of Saudi Arabia were equally surprised that Valid Visas were cancelled the way it was done. 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 explanations for the sudden and unexpected cancellation of the Visas.

“Air Peace has continued to cooperate with the Authorities to unravel the issues surrounding the Visa cancelation,” the statement read.