Fatima Waziri-Azi, the director-general of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), says human trafficking is a national crisis in Nigeria.

Ms Waziri-Azi disclosed this on Thursday in Benin at a meeting she held with stakeholders and NAPTIP partners in Edo.

She explained that this was because 83 per cent of trafficking in Nigeria happened within states, within communities, across states and that only 12 per cent accounts for trans-border trafficking.

“Simply because the media spotlight on people in Italy and all that, we think we have more trans-border trafficking. No. Internal trafficking is happening before our eyes. Domestic servitude is a crisis in Nigeria, forced labour too,” stated Ms Waziri-Azi. “Human trafficking is, therefore, a national crisis. Every state is affected, though each state has its own peculiarity.”

She urged more sensitisation of the public against human trafficking, noting that there was huge ignorance of the public on issues relating to human trafficking.

“Gone are the days when we think human trafficking is offline. It’s now online. So we have an increase in fake jobs advertorials and fake scholarships. These are the modern trends human traffickers use in luring their victims, with Dubai, India and Cyprus the trending destinations,” she explained.

The NAPTIP director-general described human trafficking as a $150 billion criminal enterprise and the second trans-national organised crime after drug trafficking.

She explained that this was because there were two sides to the crime, as there were the professional criminals enterprise who trafficked people for the sole purpose of killing them and harvesting their organs because of a global shortage of organs for transplant.

(NAN)