Human trafficking, now a national, international epidemic – NAPTIP DG

Donli also maintained that human trafficking is not only a national disaster, but also an international epidemic in the sense that within Nigeria, people are carrying out human trafficking through domestic servitudes in the name of houseboy, housegirl and all of that.

The NAPTIP boss said this on Wednesday when she led her management team on a courtesy visit to to the corporate office of The Daily Times in Abuja.

She said, “Human trafficking is not just a national disaster, but it is also an international epidemic in the sense that right here in Nigeria, we have internal human trafficking where there is a lot of domestic servitudes in the name of houseboy, housegirl and all of that.”

Donli explained that the essence of the visit was to familiarise with The Daily Times as one of the major stakeholders and to draw the newspaper’s attention to the negative effects of human trafficking in the economic well-being of the nation and to seek partnership and cooperation in the fight against human trafficking especially in creating awareness.

The NAPTIP boss noted further that sexual exploitation also takes place in the course of sending people into domestic work.

According to Donli, the new dimension in human trafficking is called “organs harvesting”- whereby victims are killed and their organs are dismembered and sold.

Donli also explained that: “This is a situation where organs are sold for money and that has become a very frightening thing that is going on right now all over the world. That is why I say it is an international and national epidemic and disaster.

“We also have sexual exploitation in terms of international trafficking when victims are taken out of the country and are used for sexual exploitation, they are also used for domestic servitudes because of cheap labour in the European countries and then they also have what we call organs harvesting.

Donli also disclosed that from 2003 to date, NAPTIP has secured about 329 convictions and more to come, adding that, “We have a lot of cases coming up in the courts and we are hoping to get more convictions as the fight goes on.”

The director general further disclosed that despite the challenges, NAPTIP under her leadership would take every measure necessary to curtail the activities of human traffickers in the country, adding that the agency is working in synergy with European countries to address the ugly trend.

She maintained that the agency was changing the narratives of human trafficking in Nigeria.
Donli also said that the NAPTIP will embark on massive awareness campaign, saying that: “For us, prevention is better than cure.

She said: “We intend to prevent it from happening, as such we are going to the communities, we are involving all the society and all the governments. It’s not just a Federal Government fight, it includes the media and that is why we are here today. We plan to partner with everyone to continue to educate people.

“Sometime, human trafficking takes place as a result of lack of knowledge, ignorance and poverty. We go to schools, we partner with the community leaders and all of that. It is a total package that involves everyone from the grassroots, the local government, the women leaders, the governors and all others.”

She said that if the agency is able to prevent this crime from taking place, that is when the job would be said to have been executed.

Donli said that The Daily Times remains the pride of the nation’s media industry and contributing positively to the growth and sustenance of the Nigeria’s economy as well as reducing vulnerability of Nigerians to various vices including human trafficking.

In his earlier remarks, the Chairman and Publisher of The Daily Times, Mr. Fidelis Anosike, congratulated the NAPTIP DG on her appointment, assuring her of his organisation’s readiness to partner with NAPTIP in the fight against human trafficking in Nigeria and beyond.

Anosike said: “We are going to give you all the support because we know your capacity and we equally support the good work NAPTIP is doing, but there is need to build on social inequality to checkmate the activities of human trafficking. NAPTIP has been doing very well and I urge the management to keep on with the good work”.

He also assured that the management of The Daily Times will give adequate publicity to the activities of NAPTIP and bring in Miss Nigeria to be an Ambassador of NAPTIP as part of the partnership to promote the campaign against human trafficking across the globe.

NATIP is a Federal Government focal agency saddled with the responsibility of combatting human trafficking.