The Federal Government has secured the imprisonments of 269 persons who trafficked humans in Nigeria since 2003, the acting Director-General of National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, Abdulrasak Dangiri, said on Monday.
He also hinted that cases of human trafficking from Nigeria across overseas, especially Europe have increased because of the harsh economic realities in the country.
According to him, the mass migration of young Africans risking their lives through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe was a big setback to Nigeria’s collective struggle to address trafficking in persons.
He said, “Since NAPTIP came into existence in 2003, we have secured 269 convictions. This year (2016) alone, we have seven convictions. NAPTIP is set to eliminate trafficking in persons not to clamp people in jail.
“The mass migration of young Africans risking their lives through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe is a big setback to our collective struggle to address trafficking in persons in NAPTIP. But of a greater concern is the fact that our world have not come to accept that different perceptions of the triggers of this scourge militates against a united force to combat it.
“Every year, about 2 million women and children are trafficked around the world in various ways, either for sexual or labour exploitation. Trafficked victims from Nigeria are recruited from rural areas or within the country into involuntary servitude and forced commercial sexual exploitation, street vending, begging, amongst other factors.”