The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in a joint operation has secured the release of 15 Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali. The release was in collaboration with the Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Labour (NACTAL) and the Action Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants in Nigeria (A-TIPSOM). A-TIPSOM is a project being implemented in Nigeria by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policy and is being sponsored by the European Union.
In a statement during the arrival of the girls on Sunday at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport in Abuja, the Director-General, NAPTIP, Fatima Waziri-Azi, represented by Angela Agbayekhai, Head, Intelligent and International Corporation Unit, NAPTIP said the release was achieved through a collaborative effort, adding that the release process started with an information from NACTAL.
“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 number of 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, Waziri-Azi said.
“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 ministers concern to bring back as many as possible.
“Bringing them back was not difficult, we had on ground an NGO we work with based in Mali, we gathered information, share intelligence and it was easy to put them together,” Waziri-Azi added.
Speaking, NACTAL President, Abdulganiyu Abubakar said the success of the release was based on partnership with Civil Society Organizations in the 16 West African Countries, noting that the NGO has implemented various mechanism across West African countries for child protection.
He added that the collaboration with ECOWAS countries led to the formation of West Africa Coalition Against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (WACTISOM) to enable child protection against trafficking in the region.
“It is this initiative of WACTISOM that led to the identification of these young Nigerian girls; our partners in Mali have written to us about these 15 girls in their custody who are victims of trafficking.
“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.