143 Victims of Human Trafficking Rescued

Nigeria

143 Victims of Human Trafficking Rescued

ThisDay

The NationalAgency for Prohibitionof Traffic in Personsand other Related offences (NAPTIP) said the agency has rescued 143 victims of trafficking in persons between July and now adding that victims fromEdo, Kano, and Delta toppedthe list of most trafficked persons.

143 Victims of Human Trafficking Rescued

From Chuka Odittah in Abuja, 11.28.2005

The NationalAgency for Prohibitionof Traffic in Personsand other Related offences (NAPTIP) said the agency has rescued 143 victims of trafficking in persons between July and now adding that victims fromEdo, Kano, and Delta toppedthe list of most trafficked persons.
The agency said such adevelopment is unacceptable in the light of renewed effortsby government to reverse the country alreadychallengedimage in human trafficking.
Alhaji Baban Dede, Head ofInvestigationBureau, disclosed this at a one-day workshop held for development partners and other stakeholders in Abuja.
According to Dede, studiescarriedout by the agency reveal that victims ofEdoState origin were leading in the profilewith a total of 54 trafficked persons recovered from that state,whilevictims of Kano state origin were nextwith a total of 43 rescued victims.
Delta was said to be next with14 recovered trafficked persons . Other states whose indigenes were rescuedfrom traffickers include Anambra, Plateau, Benue , Nassarawa, Jigawa , FCT, Ebonyi,Akwa Ibom, Kogi , Enugu , and Gombe,Rivers, Plateua among others.He saidalthoughthe reportderived from the recent surveydoes not reflect the totality of the states involvement, he said however that the cases were identifiedbased on the level of predominance.
Baban Dede stated that the agency throughpartnership with the immigration service, customsservice and the police has recoveredmany trafficked victimsmost of whom are aged between 15-20.
He said that the rescue operations took place at the airports, bus stationsand in the border towns,adding that about 132 victims have been re-united with their family.

He stressed however that higher percentage of under aged male were found to be trafficked within the country while the reverse was the case for victims trafficked outside the country.
Executive Secretary of the agency, Mrs. Carol Ndaguba said although her agency remained committed to crushing the menace of child and human trafficking , she noted that NAPTIP can only thrive based on collaboration with all stockholders. She therefore
called for closer partnership among relevant agencies in the fight against human trafficking in the country.Ndaguba later commended thecloser ties now existing between the agency and the law enforcement institutions.