Dabiri-Erewa seeks multi-agency approach to end human trafficking

The Chairman of the Nigerian Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has called for a multi-agency approach to curb the menace of human trafficking in the country.

Giving an update on Omolola Ajayi, the trafficked Nigerian lady rescued in Lebanon, to State House correspondents in Abuja on Tuesday, she maintained that human trafficking has gone out of “proportion.”

Dabiri-Erewa lamented that human traffickers were roaming freely around while their actions had endangered thousands of Nigerians in many different countries.

She said agencies such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the National Assembly and the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) among others, must collaborate to bring the unwholesome practise to a stop.

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While noting that thousands of trafficked Nigerians were still languishing abroad, she stressed that traffickers must be exposed and brought to justice.

On Omolola’s case, she said the lady who was enslaved by her master in Beirut, was now safely in the custody of the Nigerian embassy in the city.

She assured that the former victim of human trafficking would soon return to Nigeria, adding that thousands more Nigerians were also suffering her fate in the middle eastern country.

She said: “We are glad that the Nigerian embassy in Beirut was able to rescue Omolola, a victim of trafficking in Beirut, whose video went viral, and we really have to thank our Ambassador and the Staff of the embassy there.

“Since they were able to communicate with her, they actually went to the place and were able to save her.”

The NIDCOM boss also stressed the need for the setting up of a structured central agency to recruit, send Nigerian workers abroad and track their welfare, similar to the one obtainable in the Philippines.