The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has raised alarm over massive recruitment of Nigerians to Middle East by some travel agents and some self-acclaimed labour recruiters.
Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, the Executive Secretary of the agency said this on Thursday in Abuja when the management of Leadership Newspaper gave the agency the Best Government agency of the year 2019 award.
“I wish to use this opportunity to draw the attention of eminent personalities here to the disturbing issues of massive recruitment of Nigerians by some unscrupulous travel agents.’’
She said it includes self acclaimed labour recruiters to some countries in the Middle East for gross exploitation and in slave-like manner.
She said that the agency was able to bring back no fewer than 13 of such, adding that others had not been so lucky.
Okah-Donli thanked the management of Leadership Newspaper for the award, adding that it would spur NAPTIP under her watch to do more in accordance with its mandates.
She said that the agency had continued to perform creditably with massive awareness campaign ongoing in all parts of the country.
She said that NAPTIP had set up task force on human trafficking in some states of the federation to tackle the menace of trafficking from the grassroots and would be setting up others before the end of 2020 and 2021.
The organiser of the award however said that the credit for the overnight transformation of NAPTIP from its ruins to a functional agency that had drawn the attention of international community to the agency was laudable.
According to the organiser, the appointment of Julie Okah-Donli by President Muhammadu Buhari to the agency brought a new lease of life to NAPTIP.
“In line with the mandate as contained in the enabling law, NAPTIP has effectively coordinated all the activities, programmes and policies evolved by the by the leadership to stamp out human trafficking,” the organiser said. (NAN)
