Ebun Francis || The director-general of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons(NAPTIP), Julie Okah- Donli on Tuesday told a Senate committee that more than 25,000 Nigerian are held in slave and sex camps in Libya.
The NAPTIP boss made the disclosure before the senate committee on judiciary, human rights, and legal matters while defending the agency’s 2018 budget.
According to her about 5000 of the victims are already repatriated back to the country.
Donli said, “A large number of Nigerians have also been returned from other countries in Europe and Africa.”
“All these people need to be properly received, profiled and assisted. NAPTIP has been working in conjunction with other governmental and non-governmental agencies such as NEMA, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and others to provide help to these unfortunate Nigerians.”
She pleaded with the committee for improved budgetary allocation given the enormous task facing the agency especially with the alarming resurgence of slave trade associated with scrouge.
She said, ”It is my honour and privilege to raise a cry for help in this hallowed chamber on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the society, especially women and children”.
”In recent months the odious and perverse consequences of human trafficking and irregular migration were forcefully brought to our television screens with gory tales.”
According to the NAPTIP boss, if human trafficking was to be reduced or eliminated, massive public awareness, as well as behavioural change campaigns, must be sustained from the grassroots to the national level.