The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has reassured victims of trafficking of their safety in the course of their repatriation to Nigeria.
Its Director-General, Prof. Fatima Waziri-Azi reassured the victims in an interview in Abuja on Thursday.
Waziri-Azi described as false, reports making the rounds that victims of trafficking often jumped out of vehicles in the course of the journey back to Nigeria when they are being repatriated.
She said measures had been put in place to ensure that such sensitive operations were executed without hitches.
The NAPTIP director-general was responding to calls by Mr Ojo Ajanaku, President of the National Cashew Association of Nigeria (NCAN) for the Federal Government to take a holistic approach toward ending human trafficking, a development that has led Nigerian girls to be made victims of prostitution in parts of Africa.
Ajanaku who is also the Coordinator of Concerned Citizens Actions Nigeria, identified Burkina Faso and Ghana as countries where Nigerian girls are taken to and deceived into engaging in sex work.
Waziri-Azi said, therefore, said, “This has to do with trafficking across West Africa region, most times rescue and repatriations are done by road.
“Most of the rescues and repatriation are of cause done, whether in Europe, Golf countries of North Africa, such has been by air.
“We have had hundreds of people brought back from Saudi Arabia; these were people trafficked under the guise of HAJJ, but most of them fell under the hands of traffickers or forced labour.
“We have had repatriation from Morocco this year too, various repatriations were done at Arab Emirate, in terms of funding; it is not just an issue for Nigeria.
“It is due to global shrinkage of financial growth, when it has to do with repatriation from West Africa, the most cost-effective is usually by road for us.
“Personally, we have not had any experience of victims of trafficking jumping out of the vehicle; these are victims who really want to be repatriated back to Nigeria.
“Strategic measures are always employed to guarantee the safety of victims of trafficking repatriated by road or by air.”
She mentioned that such could be referred to as smuggled persons, not victims of human trafficking because the two were of different groups.
According to her, there victims of human trafficking and such are people that have been trafficked.
“I do not think any human being will want to be trafficked or exploited intentionally when you talk about smuggling persons.
“These are people who go into agreement with smugglers to smuggle them out of their country and into countries, where they are other nationals or citizens,’’ she added.
The director-general mentioned that the agency recently received 59 victims of human trafficking in Nigeria from Burkina Faso.
She reiterated that they were transported via road and that Nigerian soldiers went through the borders to receive them, saying: “We do that all the time.
