Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have intercepted 25 women suspected to be victims of labour exploitation who were about to be trafficked to Saudi Arabia.
In a statement released, the agency says the unsuspecting victims were picked up in front of a popular hotel in the highbrow area of Wuse II, Abuja, where they had gathered, awaiting their trafficker.
During interrogation, the victims, whose ages range from 17 to 43 years, claimed that they were recruited from Kano, Jigawa, and Katsina States by some persons with a promise to travel to Saudi Arabia to take up a job as a domestic worker, specifically house help.
“Some people came to our village and told my parent that they would assist me to travel abroad to work as a house help in Saudi Arabia. They assured us that the job there will pay us very well, and we will be able to come and take care of our parents and families.
They asked us to come and wait for them here so that they will give us the travel document and the necessary instructions on how to go. They have not given us any documents, like an International Passport and a visa, and we are worried that none of them is here to attend to us as they promised”, one of the victims stated.
A good number of the victims confessed that they were in Abuja for the first time, and they are stranded.
Speaking on the development, Director General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, who frowns at the activities of the traffickers who have continued to feed on the vulnerability of victims in remote parts of the C\Country, warns that some trafficking gangs now use Abuja as a centralized coordination point for trafficking.
She said: “I wish to alert our partners and stakeholders to the new modus operandi of a human trafficking syndicate that uses the Federal Capital Territory as a muster point for their nefarious activities. You will recall that a few months ago, some victims were intercepted and rescued from a hotel located close to the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja, just as they were about to be trafficked to some destination countries in the Middle East.
Now, we have intercepted another 25 women. The sad aspect of the whole thing is that they excitedly jumped at the offer from the traffickers without knowing the harrowing experience and the level of exploitation that awaits them in the destination country.
Well, the good news is that we have successfully disrupted this trafficking process, and we are closing in on the Agency whose name features prominently in the whole thing.
Let me use this medium to call on the umbrella body of the Travel Agency, the Association of Recruiters, Licensed Placement Agency of Nigeria, and other regulatory bodies, to rise to their responsibility of regulating the activities of their members.
The mindless exploitation of victims of human trafficking in those destination countries remains a source of serious concern to NAPTIP, so this scenario must stop”, the NAPTIP DG fumes.”
