Nigeria has entered into a fresh agreement with the United Kingdom that will enable British authorities to repatriate thousands of failed asylum seekers and convicted offenders to the West African nation.

The deal was formalised by Interior Minister Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood during President Bola Tinubu’s official visit to Britain, according to a statement released by the Home Office on Thursday.

Tinubu’s visit lasted two days, covering Wednesday and Thursday.

As part of the arrangement, the UK will also be able to return individuals who have overstayed their visas, with the framework offering broad operational flexibility to British authorities.

A key provision of the agreement is Nigeria’s acceptance, for the first time, of UK-issued letters as valid identification for deportees without passports. These documents serve as alternative proof of identity for individuals who lack proper travel papers and are used to facilitate their return.

Previously, Nigeria relied on emergency travel certificates as supporting identification for undocumented travellers.

The Home Office noted that Nigeria’s decision to recognise UK letters removes a significant bureaucratic barrier that has historically delayed deportations.

Details such as the commencement date and duration of the agreement have not been disclosed, and it remains unclear whether the deal includes any financial arrangement.

In 2022, Britain signed a comparable agreement with Rwanda, committing at least £370 million to relocate asylum seekers. However, that plan collapsed after Prime Minister Keir Starmer described it as “dead”.

It is also yet to be confirmed whether the deportation arrangement will apply exclusively to Nigerian nationals or extend to individuals of other nationalities.

According to reports, there are currently 961 Nigerian failed asylum seekers in the UK who have exhausted all legal appeals.

Additionally, the Home Office is awaiting the deportation of 1,110 Nigerian nationals convicted of crimes.

With the new agreement in place, both categories are expected to face quicker removal.

Tunji-Ojo said Nigeria’s signatory to the deal shows that “we are totally committed to being a responsible country in fulfilling our core obligations”.

“And for us to sustain that relationship, we must remember: ‘He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.’ So, we need to be as open and as fair as possible,” the minister said.

Alex Norris, the UK minister for border security and asylum, described Nigeria as a crucial partner in addressing irregular migration, noting its status as the UK’s largest visa market in Africa.

“We owe everyone across the system fairness,” Norris said, adding that “anyone who abuses our systems, breaks our laws or tries to cheat their way into Britain will be stopped and removed”.

The Home Office further disclosed that both countries have agreed to deepen cooperation through joint enforcement operations and intelligence sharing aimed at dismantling criminal networks exploiting visa pathways.

The agreement follows a series of notable cases involving fraudulent job sponsorships, sham marriages, and falsified financial and employment documentation.

Nigeria is also expected to review its legal framework on immigration-related offences, with the aim of imposing stricter penalties on offenders.

In addition, a new collaborative initiative will target online fraudsters engaged in romance scams, investment fraud, and cryptocurrency-related crimes, enhancing protection for UK residents.

The initiative, described as a “fusion cell” model, will unite government agencies, financial institutions, technology firms, and telecom companies to share intelligence swiftly and respond more effectively to evolving criminal methods.

Donald Trump warned that he is not ready to seek a deal to end the war with Iran, as US ally Israel launched a new wave of strikes Sunday and Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards threatened to hunt down and kill the Israeli leader.

The US president, in an interview with NBC News, said he thought Tehran was keen to come to the table but that Washington would fight on for better terms and might bomb targets on Iran’s oil hub Kharg Island once, again, “just for fun”.

More than two weeks into the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic, neither side is moderating its rhetoric despite a mounting death toll and economic damage from soaring oil prices caused by the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz sea lane.

“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump told NBC News, warning that US forces would step up strikes on the Iranian coast north of the strait to clear a path for oil shipments to resume.

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has — in a written statement — vowed to keep Hormuz closed. But Trump dismissed this and suggested his foe might not even be in control, saying: “I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody has been able to show him.”

Iran said on Saturday that “there is no problem with the new supreme leader”, even though he has yet to appear in public.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a wave of strikes against targets in Western Iran, after Iran’s Revolutionary Guards branded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a criminal and vowed that they would pursue and kill him.

– Tehran cafes reopen –

The United States has urged its citizens to leave Iraq, where pro-Iranian groups have launched attacks on the US embassy and bases hosting western military units,

Despite the hardline talk from all sides, the citizens of Tehran were able to go about their work week in the most normal atmosphere since the start of the war on February 28, when US-Israeli strikes killed the previous supreme leader, Mojtaba’s father Ali Khamenei.

Traffic was busier than last week and some cafes and restaurants had reopened.

One resident whizzed down the street on an electric hoverboard, and more than a third of stalls in the Tajrish bazaar, a popular shopping hub in the north of the capital, had reopened, five days before Nowruz, the Persian New Year.

Some shoppers queued at ATMs to withdraw cash. Online operations at Bank Melli, one of the country’s largest, had been paralysed in recent days.

Further on, passengers were waiting at bus stops, which had been largely deserted since the beginning of the war.

Trump has suggested an international naval operation could escort oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, lessening pressure on the oil price and securing supplies for countries whose economies are most exposed to the conflict.

“Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area,” Trump said in a social media post on Saturday.

Asked about this, the UK ministry of defence was non-committal. “As we’ve said previously, we are currently discussing with our allies and partners a range of options to ensure the security of shipping in the region,” it said.

South Korea said it was “closely monitoring President Trump’s remarks on social media”.

– Missile barrage –

The policy chief of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s ruling party, Takayuki Kobayashi, said the bar for sending Japanese navy ships to the region under existing laws was “extremely high”.

Bahrain and Saudi Arabia said separately on Sunday they had intercepted renewed barrages of projectiles after an AFP journalist heard warning sirens in Manama.

Late Saturday, authorities in Dubai also said air defences had made further interceptions after Iran’s military warned UAE civilians to avoid port areas.

US forces struck Iran’s Kharg Island on Friday — from which nearly all of Iran’s oil exports flow — but both sides confirmed that the strikes only took out military defences and left the oil export terminals intact.

More than 1,200 people have been killed by US and Israeli strikes, according to Iranian health ministry figures that could not be independently verified.

The UN refugee agency says up to 3.2 million people have been displaced in Iran, most of them fleeing the capital and other cities to seek safety.

The Pentagon says more than 15,000 targets in Iran have been hit by US and Israeli forces.

US media reported that the Pentagon has dispatched the amphibious assault ship USS Tripoli and around 2,500 Marines to the region.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday the joint US-Israeli campaign was “crushing” Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and called for Iranians to rise up and overthrow the Islamic republic.

Netanyahu spoke soon after the new Iranian ruler Mojtaba Khamenei’s first statement, in which he vowed to avenge the Iranians killed in the war so far.

“We are crushing Iran and Hezbollah,” Netanyahu said in a televised media briefing.