CSOs Now Conduit For Human Trafficking In Nigeria – NAPTIP

National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has disclosed that many civil society organisations now serve as a conduit for human trafficking in vulnerable communities.

The Head of Press and Public Relations of NAPTIP, Mr Vincent Adekoye, speaking at a joint press briefing of security spokespersons in Abuja, said human trafficking had shifted its gender target to male young persons.

He revealed plans to profile CSOs, including faith-based NGOs, who target vulnerable communities ravaged by the farmers-herders crisis.

“So we want to alert Nigerians to this gender shift in human trafficking, and the technology-driven, cyber-enabled nature of human trafficking. And again, we, through our operations, also discovered that traffickers are now masquerading under the umbrella of Civil Society Organisations and moving to communities that are already distressed; moving to communities where you have farmer-herder crises, and promising parents that, “Oh, we will take your children back to school,” under a fake back-to-school project.”

“And from there, they harvest children, move them, and just about two weeks ago, in an operation we carried out in Onitsha, Anambra State, we recovered four children who were removed and trafficked from Kajuru in Kaduna in 2023.”

He said the agency recovered some of them inside a high-rise building, and one of those children was also recovered from a nurse at a Federal Medical Centre in Onitsha.

“And lastly, we have also continued to ensure that we want to profile the Civil Society Organisations in Nigeria. My DG has asked me to convey to them the leadership of the CSOs in Nigeria to do an in-house cleansing. Because these are people who are known to the community. Some of them are community-based, faith-based, and non-governmental organisations.

“So, the people are familiar with them, so they take advantage of the vulnerability of the community—those who have been ravaged already—and they walk to them and take the children away.

As at last count, we have recovered 118 of such children from those that were trafficked from Nasarawa and from Benue, and three other states within the North Central. So, we are appealing to Nigerians to be watchful. When you see them, please contact NAPTIP.”

He further warned that human traffickers have now moved to cyberspace (social media), recruiting victims from Asian countries for hard labour. He revealed that the agency recently rescued 16 young boys from Thailand who were lured with lucrative job offers.

“Now we have other countries around the Asian corridor, and what is the promise? The promise is that they will earn a good living. And for those of them who have been without a job for a while, it’s a missed opportunity.

Some of them even testify that they got the job, and they offer everything for them, right from the issuance of the travel documents, right from the transportation, to get them tickets, they give them VIP treatment on arrival at the destination country.

“So from the beginning, it looks so real to them that they have no reason at all to doubt. So, the agency has been inundated with calls from some of them who are stranded. In July alone, we rescued about 16 of them from Thailand. When you hear their story, your emotions will remind you of what they have gone through. Some of them couldn’t survive. Those who survived have a narrow escape from death.”