They are suspected of having sympathies for the Boko Haram insurgency in the country.

Nigerian immigration authorities on Monday February 28, 2012 announced that they have in the last six months repatriated about 11,000 foreigners mainly from Niger and Chad to curb the growing Islamist insurgency in the country led by Boko Haram.

A spokesman for the Nigerian Immigration Service, Joachim Olumba, told AFP news agency that the expulsions had intensified in the past six months, adding that the service had an obligation to rid the country of ‘undesirable elements.’ He disclosed that immigration officers last week stopped 120 people trying to enter the country illegally from Niger.

The extremist Islamist sect has been blamed for dozens of attacks in Nigeria that have claimed hundreds of lives. It is believed that the Boko Haram recruits some of its members from neighbouring countries, a fact confirmed by its leader, Abubakar Shekau in a recent interview with a London-based newspaper. Nigeria’s military authorities last week said Boko Haram has ties with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM. AFP said.

According to Nigeria’s Newswatch magazine, the recent arrest of Boko Haram kingpins and their confessional statements seem to have taken security agencies closer to victory against the sect that seeks the imposition of Sharia law in 12 northern Nigerian states. The insurgency, the magazine recalled, became even more complex on January 8 when President Goodluck Jonathan expressed concern that its members had infiltrated the ranks of his government and the nation’s security agencies, hence, the security agencies were almost always caught off guard by their attacks.

However, there are indications that General Andrew Owoye Azazi, the National Security Adviser and the security agencies have become much more determined to quell the terrorist menace and today are said to hold about 30 key sect suspects in their custody, said Newswatch magazine.

Boko Haram was founded by Mohamed Yusuf in 2002 in the city of Maiduguri in north eastern Nigeria with the aim of establishing a Sharia government in Northern Nigeria. He established a religious complex that included a mosque and a school where many poor families from across Nigeria and neighbouring countries enrolled their children. But the centre had ulterior political goals and soon it was also serving as recruiting ground for future jihadists to fight the government.