The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has narrated how it was able to secure the release of 15 Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali through collaborative effort.
One of the girls has a three-year-old boy. Two others are pregnant.
They were released from their traffickers with the support of Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Nigeria (A-TIPSOM).
Also supportive was the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL).
A-TIPSOM is a project being implemented in Nigeria by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy (FIIAP) and is being sponsored by the European Union (EU).
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At the reception of the girls on Sunday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, the NAPTIP Director-General, Dr. Fatima Waziri-Azi, stated that the return of the girls was achieved through a collaborative effort.
Represented by Mrs Angela Agbayekhai, Head, Intelligent and International Corporation Unit, NAPTIP, the director-general said the process started through the information the agency got from NACTAL, an NGO working in partnership.
“You will agree with me that it is not just Mali that these children of ours have been, but we are happy today that we have been able to bring back these girls.
“It is our hope and plan that we will bring back more of these children because we have so many of them still out there in Mali.
“Today we have 15 of them with a child of three years, a male child. A fact-finding team who went to Mali in 2017 estimated that there are about 20,000 Nigerians still trafficked there.
“These ones brought back today is a drop in the Ocean of the numbers of these Nigerians. This is a good start, NAPTIP D-G will work with the minister’s concern to bring back as many as possible.
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“Bringing them back was not difficult, we had an NGO we work with based in Mali, we gathered information, shared intelligence and it was easy to put them together,” Waziri-Azi said.
Mr. Abdulganiyu Abubakar, the NACTAL President, stated that the whole process was made possible based on the partnership they have with Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in the 16 West African countries.
He said that NACTAL has implemented different mechanisms in the 16 ECOWAS countries for the protection of children.
Abubakar said that there is no country in the region that has a formidable platform in terms of child protection mechanisms like Nigeria.
“They have all escaped from their traffickers and want to return back home and we immediately contacted NAPTIP and A-TIPSOM. Mali is a major transit country for trafficking in persons,” he said.