NAPTIP’s quest to arrest cross-border traffickers

Nigeria’s anti-human trafficking agency, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has called for the arrest and prosecution of foreign-based human trafficking barons across the globe.

NAPTIP’s Director-General, Mrs. Julie Okah-Donli, made the call recently when she received a delegation from the Spanish embassy in Abuja.

According to the NAPTIP boss, the activities of foreign-based traffickers are a major threat to the global anti-human trafficking campaign.

Okah-Donli tasked members of the European Union and other international organisations to provide useful intelligence on the operational base and location of Nigerian traffickers, so that NAPTIP can arrest and prosecute them.

She told the visiting envoys that getting to the European-based human trafficking barons would be a major boost to the current fight against human traffickers.

“The arrest and prosecution of those human traffickers that are based in any of the European countries is very crucial to our latest efforts to end human trafficking in Nigeria. We implore you to join hands with us in the area of intelligence sharing aimed at exposing those foreign-based human trafficking madams, who are believed to be behind the exploitation of our youths.

“We want them to be exposed and made to face the wrath of the law. This is one of the ways to ensure that the latest fight against human trafficking succeeds,” she said.

The leader of the Spanish delegation said earlier said the delegation visited NAPTIP to brief its management on the 11th European Development Fund project, which is aimed at addressing some of the human trafficking issues in the country.

The main objective of the project is to reduce trafficking in persons and the smuggling of migrants, both within Nigeria and to European countries, with specific emphasis on women and children.

TMP – 10/08/2018

Photo credit: www.naija.ng. Photo caption: Suspected human traffickers arrested by NAPTIP