Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal Migration Office confirmed 1 June to public television TSR that it has paid a sum of money to the family of a 29-year-old Nigerian who died at Zurich airport 17 March, but it has not confirmed the amount of CHF50,000 reported by African Mirror, a Swiss-based Internet media.
The money was provided, TSR public television quotes a Swiss official as saying, to help the family provide a decent burial for the man. His remains were flown to Nigeria 31 May, delayed first by the autopsy performed in Switzerland, then, according to African Mirror, by discussions over the money provided to the family by the Swiss government.
The family reportedly told African Mirror that Switzerland was slow to provide the funds, but TSR reports that the Migration Office says it took time for the money to transit local Nigerian offices. The investigation into the death continues and no information has been released since March about either the autopsy results or the circumstances surrounding his death.
Switzerland temporarily halted repatriation flights, such as the one the man was scheduled to take back to Lagos, but these resumed 21 May.
The man’s remains will be buried 5 June in Nigeria.
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News story, GenevaLunch, 3 June 2010.
Filed under: Featured story, News, Society
Tags: African Mirror, asylum seekers, death, Nigerian, repatriation flights, Zurich Airport
November 8th, 2010 at 9:05 am
[...] to resolve a number of migration-related tensions that reached a low point when a 29-year-old Nigerian man died at Zurich Airport 17 March 2010, just as he was about to be repatriated. The Nigerian diaspora in Switzerland has [...]