legislation to improve Nigeria’s increasingly notorious human trafficking record.
A critical review of the Human Trafficking Act is to be implemented, in addition to
seeing through the domestication of the Global Migration Policy, the House
Diaspora Committee stated on Tuesday.
Nigeria remains a source, transit and destination country for women and children
subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking, according to the National Agency
for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons(NAPTIP).
Many Nigerian women and children are trafficked to African and European
countries annually. At least sixty per cent of the prostitutes in Turin in Italy and
Antwerp in Belgium for instance, are known to be Nigerian women and girls, the
agency told lawmakers.
Also, about 50,000 girls, aged between 9 and 17, have been trafficked for segxwal
exploitation in brothels within Nigeria.
“The magnitude of this phenomenon and its consequences are considerable and
call for concerted action by government and civil society,” said NAPTIP Executive
Secretary, Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
The chairman of the House Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said an
amendment to strengthen needed laws is underway.
She said disrupting and unmasking those responsible for the cycle, will be the
motivation that will drive the process.
“NAPTIP’s problem is not money, it is law,” she said. “We need migration policy.
We need to review NAPTIP laws to strengthen it. We need to domesticate
trafficking laws. We need to unmask the cabal and break its ring.”
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