The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), has expressed worry over the proliferation of illegal orphanages that engage in selling of children to the highest bidders in the Southeast.
Director, Counseling and Rehabilitation of NAPTIP, Angela Agbayekhai decried the increasing number of the illegal orphanages during the Victims Assistance/Medical Outreach Support for Victims of Human Trafficking organized by NAPTIP with support from the International Center For Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) held in Enugu.
Agbayekhai, who represented the Director General of NAPTIP, Professor Fatima Waziri-Azi, said the illegal orphanages pretend to be offering services but sell babies to the highest bidders at the same time, adding that female children are sold between 500,000 and 1 million naira while the male ones are sold at higher prices.
She, however, expressed happiness that they have been recording tremendous successes in bursting the syndicate, adding that they are working hard to tackle the ugly development.
The medical outreach, she explained was organized to ascertain the medical challenges the victims of human trafficking encountered with a view to providing solutions to them, stating that after treatment, the victims will be reintegrated into the society.
She further disclosed that it was the intention of NAPTIP and ICMPD to solve the medical challenges of the victims and explained that they decided to bring doctors to the doorsteps so that the medical challenges of the victims will be ascertained and solved.
Speaking on behalf of ICMPD, Adeniyi Bakre explained that the programme was funded by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Bakre, on behalf of the Regional Head of ICMPD, West Africa, Mojisola Sodeinda congratulated NAPTIP for taking the bold step to institute a formal cooporation on issues relating to trafficking human beings.
