NAPTIP debunks Human Rights Watch report on trafficking as false

…Aimed at tarnishing Nigeria’s image

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) on Tuesday, debunked allegations made against the agency and Nigeria by the Human Rights Watch in its 2019 report on human trafficking as false.

The rights body in a 90 page report released on Tuesday in Abuja, accused the anti human trafficking agency of putting victims in detention camps, deny them necessary care and holding them in “slavery-like conditions inside Nigeria”.

The body in the report titled: You Pray for Death: Trafficking of Women and Girls in Nigeria, has also accused the federal government of lack of clear cut policies and programmes that would improve conditions of trafficked victims.

Reacting to the report on Tuesday, Director General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, urged members of the public to disregard the report in its entirety for being false and aimed at tarnishing the image of NAPTIP and Nigeria.

“I will like to request the general public, the local and international media to disregard, discountenance this information as untrue, a pack of lies and an attempt to tarnish the image of NAPTIP and the Nigerian Government for whatever ulterior motive the Human Rights Watch wants to achieve”, she said.

Okah-Donli, who told journalists that the report may not be unconnected with activities of enemies of the agency and traffickers, described the entire report as “a mere figment of the imagination of the writers”, it fell below the standards in the operations of the agency’s shelters as well as the standards for its victims’ support and assistance.

The DG stressed that the agency observes all the world best practices in victims handling as enshrined by the Palermo protocol which includes that no victim shall be kept in a shelter against his or her will.

She added that activities in the shelters are further guided by the National Policy on Protection and Assistance to Trafficked Persons in Nigeria, a document that has also been adopted by ECOWAS in dealing with victims of human trafficking.

“The NAPTIP shelters are no doubt closed shelters where victims are given protections and assistance for a short while before moving them to open shelters so they can move about for their rehabilitation programmes which include going to school or learning a trade based on their preferences.

“The shelter is not a detention camp, neither does it look like one and can be accessed and assessed.

“It may interest you to note that when victims are rescued from their exploiters or repatriated from abroad, their traffickers in order to avoid justice go in search of them to harm them or stop them from exposing what they have gone through.

Under that circumstance, the victim needs protection to save his/her life. Some of the victims equally do not want to be reunited with their families as their family members were part of their trrafficking in the first instance and reuniting them therefore amounts to further endangering their lives”, she said.

While explaining that victims are not kept beyond necessary period, Okah Donli said many of the victims are traumatised, have all manner of health situations that the agency takes measures to deal with before allowing them back into the society.

She also debunked the claim that the victims are not given access to their family members through personal contacts or through telephone conversations. “Whenever they wanted to speak to their families or see them within the very short period of their stay there, they are allowed.

“However, the personal contact is made at any of the Agency’s offices and not at the shelter as it would be dangerous to allow everyone have knowledge of the location of the shelter considering the general security situation of the country and the desperation of criminals to destroy evidence of their crime”, she said.

She assured local and international partners of NAPTIP’s continued adherance to international standards and best practices in the protection and assistance to trafficked victims whether rescued within Nigeria or rescued outside the country, adding that the agency will never put victims in its shelters a day longer than necessary.