NIS rescues 453 victims of human trafficking

…Arrests 78 traffickers, generates N39.06bn in 2018

…Reunites 423 victims of trafficking in person with their families

Ukpono Ukpong, Abuja

The Nigeria Immigration Services (NIS) rescued no fewer than 453 victims of human trafficking and child labour as well as arrested 78 human traffickers in 2018.

According to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), NIS also generated N39.06 billion as revenue in 2018 as against the N35.72 billion revenue it generated in 2017, representing a positive growth of 9.34 per cent.

The report also noted that a total of 423 victims of trafficking in person and smuggling of migrants were re-united with their respective families and 209 irregular migrants were also intercepted in 2018.

Of the 453 victims of human trafficking and child labour rescued, 163 were rescued in Oyo State alone being their highest number for the year followed by Katsina and Kano states with 94 and 58 respectively.

Similarly, 27 human traffickers were arrested in Oyo State followed by 18 in Lagos being the highest in 2018.

The report further disclosed that a total of 1,011,158 passport applications were received in 2018 as against 720,958 received in 2017 representing about 40.25% positive growth.

It also noted that 173,461 of the figure are minors while 779,905 are adults and the remaining 57,792 are senior citizen.

“The NIS generated N39,061,098,079.50 in 2018 as against N35,724,482,338.96 local revenue generated in 2017. This represents a positive growth of 9.34%.

“The Immigration Statistics for 2018 reflected that a total of 1,011,158 passport applications were received in 2018 as against 720,958 received in 2017.

This represents about 40.25% positive growth. 173,461 of the 2018 figure are minor, 779,905 are adults and the remaining 57,792 are senior citizen.

“A total of 185,657 passports were issued at the foreign missions in 2018 as against 152,163 issued in 2017 while the number of visa issuance at the foreign missions was put at 120,697. This represents 4.82% positive growth.

“A total of 4,529,153 international travellers movement was recorded across all Nigeria borders in 2018 as against 3,715,268 in 2017. This represents a 21.91% positive growth,” the report stated.

The breakdown of the revenue generated by NIS in 2018 according to the report includes N14.77 billion generated from passport revenue as against N13.17 billion realised in 2017, representing 12.14 per cent growth, just as ECOWAS/African Affairs accounted for N126 million in 2018 from N65.3 million in 2017.

Others include 80.36 per cent revenue generated from Non refundable revenue for operations to N306.47 million from N169.9 million in 2017 while address verification grew by 16.31 per cent to N2.1 billion in 2018 from N1.78 billion in 2017.

Also, the revenue generated from Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Aliens Card (CERPAC) grew by 6.95 per cent to N20.35 billion in 2018 from N19.03 billion in 2017 while Extension of Visitors Pass (E-Pass) recorded a 3.62 per cent decline in 2018 (N1.42 billion) from N1.47 billion generated in 2017.

A further check revealed that NIS performed poorly in terms of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) as it recorded 100 per cent decline against the N20.29 million realised in 2017.