17,727 victims of trafficking rescued, rehabilitated since 2003 ― NAPTIP Boss

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3 years ago

Dr Fatima Waziri-Azi, Director-General, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons (NAPTIP)

No less than 17,727 victims of human trafficking have been rescued, sheltered and rehabilitated by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) since its inception in 2003, the Director-General of the agency, Fatima Waziri-Azi, has revealed.

Speaking on Thursday at the inter-ministerial briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, she said that females make up the majority of the number at 13,026 victims.

However, she regretted that the agency has only been able to secure 511 convictions out of 8,005 arrests in the past years, which she blamed on the refusal of victims to cooperate during investigations.

Waziri-Azi disclosed that there are 261 ongoing cases in various courts nationwide.

The NAPTIP boss briefed the media on progress in the agency’s efforts to deal with the problem of human trafficking, domestic violence and other related offences, adding: “The agency has so far rescued, sheltered and rehabilitated over 17,727 victims of human trafficking. 4,272 are males while 13,026 are females. Children also form the bulk of that number; amounting to 8,935.

“NAPTIP has also rescued 15,992 and 1,805 non-Nigerians in the past years. They hail from China, Lebanon, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Central African Republic, Ghana, Benin Republic, Guinea Conakry, Togo, Burkina Faso, Cameroun Chad, Ivory Coast and Mali.

“The 394 victims who have gone through our shelters between January 2022 to date received medical support, psycho-social support and legal assistance. NAPTIP has also sponsored 16 VoTs to universities across the country. Three of such graduates are now officers of NAPTIP.”

On the slow progress in the area of securing convictions, she pointed out that most of the victims do not cooperate sufficiently with the agency in terms of providing intelligence to nail perpetrators due to threats they face by themselves or their families.

The NAPTIP boss further stated: “One of the challenges we have is victims not wanting to cooperate with us because the traffickers are most times, family members. You hear stories of sisters trafficking sisters, brothers trafficking brothers, uncles trafficking nieces and nephews; even husbands trafficking their wives and children.

“International law stipulates that you don’t force victims to cooperate with the system. What you do is encourage them, and for us in NAPTIP, when we come, we debrief them, ‘Okay, tell me the name of your trafficker.’ And they say ‘Oh, I don’t remember.’

“The simple fact is that these people are being threatened. Most of them are threatened personally. Some of them and their families have been threatened. And like I said in my presentations, sometimes your trafficker might not force you to take oaths in Nigeria, because they don’t want you to suspect anything. But when you get to the destination country, they make you swear oaths there.

“So they have their own foreign shrine, where they’ll make you swear oaths. And for those that don’t operate in the oath realm, they now video you nude and keep threatening you that, ‘if you report, we’ll expose you.'”

She said that the lack of cooperation from source or vulnerable communities also stems from beliefs that the traffickers are helpers and should, therefore, be protected from NAPTIP.

Another factor she said is responsible for low convictions is the “unavailability of lawyers to take up civil cases on behalf of victims on a Pro Bono basis; making it difficult for victims to get compensation from their traffickers.”

She said despite the problems, NAPTIP will continue to sensitise the public and encourage victims to speak out about their ordeals.

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