National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) yesterday disclosed that over 5,000 Nigerian girls were still being held in sexual slavery in Mali.
This came on the heels of the deportation of some Nigerian girls, who were victims of human trafficking, from Mali. The Head, Press and Public Relations, NAPTIP, Mr. Josiah Emerole, made the disclosure in a statement.
He said: “Reports indicate that over 5,000 Nigerians are presently in different parts of Mali being forced into prostitution by their traffickers who had lured them to Mali with the promise of helping them to Europe.”
Emerole said that NAPTIP had commenced investigation into the trafficking to Mali of 37 Nigerian girls who were on Monday deported by the Malian authorities.
The NAPTIP spokesman noted that four female suspects were also deported with the victims. He said: “While the victims are being counselled by NAPTIP counsellors, the suspects are in NAPTIP custody and are making useful statements.”
The Malian police on February 16, rescued the Nigerian girls, aged 15 to 32 years, being used as sex slaves at Koflatie, an area in Northern Mali reportedly notorious for prostitution. Five female suspects – four Nigerians and a Ghanaian – were also arrested in the course of the raid.
Emerole said that investigations into the matter commenced before the deportation as investigators from the agency, who were also members of the Joint Border Task Force (JBTF) had, as soon as the Malian authorities reached the agency through the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom, gone to Mali to profile, debrief and interview the victims and suspects preparatory to their return.
He added: “The invitation of the NAPTIP-JBTF team was necessitated by the need to bring to bear the Nigerian experience on handling human trafficking cases; in identifying and to substantiate points to prove acts of human trafficking in the Malian case.
The repatriation of the Nigerians was greatly assisted by the Defence Headquarters which tasked the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) to help in bringing back the girls, who were already posing a security risk to Mali.
The girls, who arrived the Air Force Base of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos in a Nigerian Air Force plane on Monday evening were received by a joint operations team comprising officials of NAPTIP, the military, police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and the Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora Matters, Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Speaking with the top management of the agency on the Malian case, the Acting Director-General, Mr. Abdulrazak Dangiri, directed that investigation on the trafficking of the 37 girls must be thorough; stressing that sloppiness would not be tolerated.
While thanking all those who played one role or the other in achieving a successful return of the women, Dangiri thanked the Federal Government for the quick intervention through the Defence Headquarters.
He, however, stated that the agency was putting in place measures that would be presented to government to ensure that all other victims stranded in Mali and other parts of Africa are rescued and brought back to Nigeria.
It may be recalled that this will not be the first time that the Nigerian Government would help in evacuating Nigerian victims of human trafficking from Mali. In 2012, NAPTIP, with support from the Office of the National Security Adviser to the President, evacuated 104 persons from Mali in an operation tagged ‘Operation Timbuktu.’
Credits: New Telegraph