Nigerian women make up 60 percent of prostitutes in Italian and Belgian cities

Trafficking of under-aged girls from Nigeria to Saudi Arabia is now in the rise, Executive Secretary of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related Matters (NAPTIP) Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba has said.

She also said that "Available statistics indicate that 60% of the prostitutes in Turin, Italy and Antwerp in Belgium are Nigerian girls."

Speaking before the House of Representatives committee on Diaspora yesterday, Mrs. Jedy-Agba said her agency has uncovered new route of trafficking under the cover of pilgrimage.

"It appears from the report of our staff who have participated in Hajj operations that there is an increased trafficking activity under the cover of the annual pilgrimage. Traffickers have devised an insidious plan to desecrate the Holy Land of Mecca with trafficked victims," she said.

The NAPTIP boss said the agency has identified two major trafficking routes - the Lagos-Cotonuo-Moussa- Ouagadougou-Mali route accounts for about 75% of trafficked victims to Europe and the Sokoto-Bori Koni in Niger Republic and Katsina Maradi-Niamey-Agadez-Libya.

She told the committee that there was increase in internal trafficking at the border towns of Calabar, Port Harcourt, Uyo Badagry, Benin, Kebbi, Sokoto and Maiduguri, with about 8million children at the risk of being trafficked.

Reports equally showed that there are large numbers of Nigerian women regularly taken to other West and Central African countries of Gabon, Cameroon, Ghana, Chad, Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina-Faso and the Gambia for sexual exploitation under the guise of taking them abroad for employment opportunities.

A recent fact finding mission conducted by the agency confirmed the existence of many brothels in Bamako, Mopti, Kayes, Sikasso, Gao, all in Mali populated by young Nigerians between the ages of 14 and 17 years being used as sex slaves," she said. At the age where they should be enrolled in educational leadership programs, these young girls are tragically denied so much of
life.

Rep Abike Dabiri-Erewa (ACN, Lagos), who chairs the committee, promised that the National Assembly will look into the possibilities of amending the constitution to ease the process of domesticating international protocol on human trafficking.

Daily Trust

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