A News Report by Hakeem Babalola

Virtually every document issued in Nigeria is unacceptable by the Hungarian Immigration unless such documents are duly certified by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Hungarian Embassy all in Abuja.

The situation has no regards to an appeal from Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, that Nigerians deserve special consideration. Chief Maduekwe once told journalists in Abuja: "It is time for European countries to grant amnesty to Nigerians living in Europe without travel documents."

The documents include birth certificate, marriage or bachelor’s certificate depending on one’s marital status, police report, drivers’ licence and so on. Nigerians in Hungary need to produce most of these documents in order to process their residence permit which would enable them to work and live in Hungary.

According to the information available at the Hungarian Immigration Office in Budapest, Nigerians who want to apply for a long term resident permit must produce their birth certificate, or a document to prove their marital status; and a police criminal record to show that they are not criminals in their home country.

Foreigners, especially those referred to as Third Country nationals, who intend to marry Hungarians, are expected to submit a bachelor’s certificate or its equivalent. While the Nigeria Embassy in Budapest often issues this certificate to its citizens, other documents must be taken to Abuja for attestation by the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Hungarian Embassy in Abuja respectively.

The procedure, according to the affected Nigerians, is not only time consuming but expensive, discriminatory and unnecessary.

Nigerians who married Hungarians do not need to take their documents to Abuja for attestation. They do not even need to submit any police report. To avoid the hassles of spending lavishly on document attestation, most Nigerians have resulted to marrying Hungarians even though many of them often say they regretted such decision.

Although the Nigeria Embassy in the country confirmed the fact that documents issued in Nigeria have to be attested by the Foreign Ministry, a source close to the embassy said that it did not know about the attestation at the Hungarian Embassy which officially cost twenty euro for one document.

Since those affected are not willing to travel to Nigeria, they often send the documents to their relatives for processing. The Nigeria Police report’s form, for example, is then sent back to them in Hungary for thumb-printing after which they send it back to Nigeria for police verification.

It could cost as high as N15, 000 (126 dollars) where the surnames of the candidate and his representative don’t tally. This is because in such cases the representative must go through a lawyer who often charges fortune for such services.

The Nigeria Embassy Budapest categorically states in its website that "The Embassy does not authenticate Nigerian Passports" nor issue one. This has angered many Nigerians who often questioned the relevance of an embassy if it could not render essential service like issuing passports. Mr. Tunde Adeosun, a Nigerian who once lost his passport asked: "What exactly is the duty of Nigerian Mission abroad if something as important as passport cannot be provided?"

When asked why Nigerians have to go to Abuja for document attestation instead of their Embassy doing it for them here in Budapest, a senior official at the Nigeria Embassy Budapest said that the directive came from the Foreign Ministry Abuja, adding that "it is to prevent Nigerian documents from being forged".

Years ago, Nigerian documents were accepted without any attestation by the Foreign Affairs Ministry or the Hungarian embassy. But since the Hungarian authority has discovered that most documents – especially what is now known as "proxy passports" are not genuine – the immigration officials have put Nigerians on the watch list. 

Author’s Note: This article first published by The Nation

Copyright 2009 mysmallvoice@yahoo.com

Robot  # 1 | 04.03.2009 06:06

A News Report by Hakeem Babalola Virtually every document issued in Nigeria is unacceptable by the Hungarian Immigration unless such documents are duly certified by the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Hungarian Embassy all in Abuja. The situation has no regards to an appeal from Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe, that Nigerians deserve special consideration. Chief Maduekwe once told journalists in Abuja: "It is time for European countries to grant amnesty to Nigerians living in Europe without travel documents." The documents include birth certificate, marriage or bachelor’s certificate depending on one’s marital status, police report, drivers’ licence and so on. Nigerians in Hungary need to produce most of these documents in order to process their residence permit which would enable them to work and live in Hungary. According to the information available at the Hung...Read the full article.

Gongo-aso  # 2 | 04.03.2009 10:03

Na kondition make krayfish bend. Who would have gone to Hungary in 1980? In 1989? Who does not know that Hungarians are hungry? The Nigerian Government should measure out procedures that will be equivalent to this maltreatment. Hungarians in Nigerians should also be made to sweat and crawl for every little detail that they seek in Nigeria. Not doing this is tantamount to inferiority complex and stupidity (attention Ojo Maduekwe) An eye for an eye AND a tooth for a tooth.

allaccess  # 3 | 04.03.2009 10:37

Who wants to live in a country like Hungary filled with racist and ignorant people who still have 1950 views about blacks? Not to talk of the largest collection of Eastern European prostitutes and the worlds largest pool of PORNSTAR WOMEN. I was there 3 times and my 2 girlfriends (at those times) and some of their family members told me porn is actually recognised in Hungary as an acceptable profession by most families. Joor by the Austrian border and Budapest is rife with men scammers doing anything from drugs, computer hacking, jacking tourist and luring them into mafia run bars where they are extorted for their cash, and pimping. so many beautiful women who are so cheap to sleep and date, oh, and cannot be trusted NOT to sleep with your friends. Causal sex and criminality are no big deal to this people. Their immigration officers are some of the most untrained and irresponsible KGB-like officers I have seen in uniform since the collapse of the soviet union. Useless country to say the least.

AISAGBON OMOGIADE  # 4 | 04.03.2009 10:39

=Gongo-aso;332678>Na kondition make krayfish bend. Who would have gone to Hungary in 1980? In 1989? Who does not know that Hungarians are hungry? The Nigerian Government should measure out procedures that will be equivalent to this maltreatment. Hungarians in Nigerians should also be made to sweat and crawl for every little detail that they seek in Nigeria. Not doing this is tantamount to inferiority complex and stupidity (attention Ojo Maduekwe) An eye for an eye AND a tooth for a tooth. The requirements listed by the author of the article though not originally so,are not new to those Nigerians living in countries that are not members of the commonwealth of Nations in Europe.From age declaration to driving licence, Nigerians forge them to serve any purpose they are in need of at a particular time. There are no laws in those countries that require these procedures to be followed. If you go to court to challange the order, you may waste more money and time.The amount of $126 he said they pay at the Hungarian embassy in Abuja is a peanut, compare to what my friend told me our babes pay to the Italian Embassy for same services. I am at a loss as to why a full-fledged Mission cannot issue a passport.The attention of the loquacious minister of external affairs should be brought to this.

Anioma777  # 5 | 04.03.2009 14:15

Our Humiliation seems to have no bounds. Can you blame this backward Eastern European countries like Hungary having mouth against Nigerians. Who is their right mind will want to go to Hungary unless you are going there for cheap booze,holidays and loose women :D. On a serious note Ojo Madueke needs to explain why an emabasy does not issue visa or other embassy services. Something is wrong with Nigerian policy makers they have this unenviable talent to complicate things where simplicity is called for.

draftman  # 6 | 04.03.2009 14:29

Don't blame the Hungarian or any other countries for their treatments of nigeria. We've taught them that some nigerian are fraudsters, and scammers, do you expect these countries to take chances- No way. Nigerian need to change our ways, some ppl may make money thru scam today, we and our children will pay for it later in this form. Lets be a good ambassador of our country, PLEASE.

AISAGBON OMOGIADE  # 7 | 04.03.2009 15:26

=draftman;332774>Don't blame the Hungarian or any other countries for their treatments of nigeria. We've taught them that some nigerian are fraudsters, and scammers, do you expect these countries to take chances- No way. Nigerian need to change our ways, some ppl may make money thru scam today, we and our children will pay for it later in this form. Lets be a good ambassador of our country, PLEASE. You have said it all.In february of 2003, a czech vented his anger on a Nigerian diplomat in Prague -Czech republic( Mr L.M Wayi)by shooting him dead while Mr. S.A Baba-Bodi a local employee of the Embassy was seriously injured. Dr. Jiri Pacovosky (72years old) was reacting violently, having lost a huge amount of money to Nigerian E-Mail scammers.Hungary and Czechoslovakia were neighbours before Slovakia seperated in 1993. The poorest country in Europe is Albania.If Ngerians were there, they will have reasons to commit crimes.

peterosa  # 8 | 04.03.2009 15:51

Do you need to blame the hungarans for their staits laws on nigerian?the answer is no,,,,,and i am very certain some people will want to know the reason i said know. This is the simple reason why i said i don"t blame them,,,,how will you expect nigerians to be trooping into a country as poor as hungary in hundreds every mouth because of our bad leaders. Nigerians are using every means to meet their needs in hungary which the hungarian government have come to know.

OweEse  # 9 | 04.03.2009 16:20

=Gongo-aso;332678>Na kondition make krayfish bend. Who would have gone to Hungary in 1980? In 1989? Who does not know that Hungarians are hungry? The Nigerian Government should measure out procedures that will be equivalent to this maltreatment. Hungarians in Nigerians should also be made to sweat and crawl for every little detail that they seek in Nigeria. Not doing this is tantamount to inferiority complex and stupidity (attention Ojo Maduekwe) An eye for an eye AND a tooth for a tooth. How many Hungarians apply for Nigerian visas? Are there even any Hungarians in Nigeria???

liloldlady  # 10 | 04.03.2009 16:25

=OweEse;332816 How many Hungarians apply for Nigerian visas? Are there even any Hungarians in Nigeria??? No there isn't any. Once any Hungarian comes into Nigerian air space, their trachea will clamp close and they will die.

---

The conversation continues in our forum. Click here to read all comments

---