The Nigerian Embassy as a Deporta tion AgencyWhose Ambassadors are these?Over the last few years, European governments have managed to tighten their immigration laws leading ultimately to the construction of “fortress Europe”. As a result, refugees as a rule are routinely denied asylum. According to Spiegel magazine (a leading German newsmagazine) only one in a thousand African refugees is offered asylum in Germany. Those whose asylum applications have been denied have to be deported back to their countries of origin, forcefull y and against their will. We would like to point out that all the countries in Europe and Africa are signatories to the United Nations Organisation (UN O) Declarat ion on Human Rights and the GenevaConvention on Refugees. This declaration recognises the right of Asy lum as a fundamental human right. However, with the new immigration laws of the western European countries, especially Germany, this fundamental human right is being denied to refugees and other legal immigrants are also facing hard times. And the embassies of African countries, especially the Nigerian embass y, are pla ying a shamefu l role supporting this deportation polic y: While most asylum seekers do not have any travel or identification documents, it therefore becomes necessary for these refugees to be identified by their countries’ embassies so as to issue travel documents which will facilitate their deportation. Without this identification and issuance of a ...